Jordan O'BrienThe Amazon Echo may have been one of the first smart Bluetooth speakers to launch on the market, but it was by no means the last. First Google launched its Home competitor, then rumours began to swirl about potential devices from Apple and Microsoft and now a Chinese company you’re unlikely to have ever heard of has its very own competitor and it’s called the LingLong DingDong.
While it’s by far one of the most bizarre product names CE Pro Europe has ever come across, it’s a rather unique device as it’s the only smart speaker capable of speaking Chinese. The Amazon Alexa voice assistant is only available in the UK, North America and Germany, meaning it’s only capable of speaking either English or German, Google Home meanwhile is only available in the US and can only understand English. The LingLong DingDong is able to do many of the things both of those speakers are capable of, but in Chinese.
China has a growing appetite for smart home technology, with the market reportedly set to be worth $22.8bn by 2018. LingLong wants to capitalise on that desire, with the company hoping that the ease of its product and its Chinese-nativeness will help it compete against the bigger players if they ever decide to launched in the Middle Kingdom.
LingLong has undercut both the Amazon Echo and Google Home, but only slightly. While the Google Home is the cheapest of the two tech giants, it can be picked up for around $129. The LingLong DingDong however, retails for around $118. While that lower price would have one believe that it has less in terms of functionality, LingLong says that the DingDong is capable of providing news, weather and stock updates, as well as answer questions, manage a user’s calendar, play music and even give directions. Unfortunately, as of right now, the LingLong DingDong can’t play Ping Pong, although you can have a sing song or listen to the soundtrack of King Kong.
So how can a company that many have never heard of have any hope in taking on two of the biggest companies in the world? Well, LingLong isn’t as small as one would assume. While it’s not quite a Google or an Amazon, LingLong is a joint-venture between China’s Amazon equivalent, JD.com, and voice recognition firm iFlytek.
The LingLong DingDong is similar in stature to Amazon’s Echo, albeit with a few key design differences. Firstly, the Amazon Echo is a completely circular device, while the LingLong DingDong is circular on top, while square on the bottom. LingLong’s smart speaker is also available in more than just black and white, with red and purple versions also available. There’s also more ways to wake the device, while Amazon supports the wake words ‘Amazon’ and ‘Alexa’, the LingLong DingDong can be woken by saying ‘DingDong DingDong’, Xiaowei Xiaowei (a girl’s nickname), and BaiLing BaiLing (skylark).
While the LingLong DingDong speaks Chinese, Cantonese and Mandarin speakers will have to get different versions of the speaker. LingLong says that this is because the engines required to understand the languages are too complex to include them both in one device. Despite the complexity, and the countless different dialects, LingLong is still confident that the DingDong will be able to understand roughly 95% of the population – which means well over a billion people.
Despite offering a competing device, LingLong doesn’t want to take on Amazon’s Echo head-on. In fact, according to Wired, the company wants to work with Amazon to potentially bring its Alexa voice engine to its product. LingLong also believes that Amazon could benefit from using its technology as a way to launch the much-loved Amazon Echo into the Chinese market.