Jordan O'BrienAmazon has officially confirmed a UK release of its Alexa-powered smart speaker, the Amazon Echo. Available for pre-order from today and shipping September 28, the smart Bluetooth speaker will come in both black and, for the first time, white. The Echo Dot will also be coming to the UK, with it set to begin shipping on October 20.
Taking on the likes of Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana, Alexa is a voice assistant that is designed to help users with controlling their home and managing their lives. It has been available in the USA since November 6, 2014 but now is the first time it’s going to be available outside North America.
Alexa is available on the Amazon Echo, a smart Bluetooth speaker, but can also be interacted with on the Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Tap and Echo Dot. Using voice commands to communicate with any of these devices allows users to play music, read out emails, order pizza, or control their smart home. In fact, Alexa already recognises hundreds of different commands and can control countless different smart home products – including Nest, Philips Hue and Samsung’s SmartThings.
Not only will the Amazon Echo be available in the UK, Amazon is also making the device available in Germany – meaning this is the first time Alexa has been able to communicate in any language that is not English.
Since its release the Amazon Echo has become a hit device in the USA with many praising its ease of operation – as the only way of interacting with Alexa is with a user’s voice. The company has also been keen to win over the custom install channel, with Amazon delivering the opening keynote at CEDIA 2016, as well as having a stand on the show floor.
Speaking to CE Pro, Alexa smart home director Charlie Kindel explained the company’s decision behind its recent CEDIA partnership. “”Clearly, there is a lot of usage in the DIY space,” Charlie says. “But the big opportunity is where there is more of a total home solution, where customers would rather a pro come in to help with some of the more mundane configurations.”
It’s not yet known whether Amazon is going to be as bullish with the custom install channel in the UK as it has in the US, but CEDIA is still keen to work with the company to ensure that Echo users get the best smart home experience possible.
Despite the European release not everything will be plain sailing for Amazon as the voice assistant market is beginning to heat up. Google announced its own smart speaker using its virtual assistant that has the immense power of the Google search engine backing it up, dubbed Google Home.