Amazon announces new Echo devices for the whole home (AMZN)

Echo updates

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Amazon announced a number of new and updated products in its Echo line at an event yesterday. The e-commerce giant continues to try to expand the utility of its Echo smart speakers and create new offerings to push users to buy multiple devices to keep them all around their homes.

Here’s are some of the major new products Amazon announced at the event:

An updated Echo. The original Echo hadn’t seen any major updates since it was first introduced in 2014 and was in dire need of an update, given the introduction of major competitors including the Google Home and the music-oriented Apple HomePod. The new device, priced at $99, will purportedly offer better audio quality and far-field microphones for improved speech recognition. It will also feature swappable shells that let users change its appearance so that it can fit into any part of a home.
The Echo Plus. This new device looks identical to the original Echo, and will offer the speaker and voice-recognition capabilities of that device. But it also features a ZigBee hub to allow the easy connection and setup of smart home devices. It’s meant to boost smart home adoption and will sell for $149.
The Echo Spot. Perhaps most intriguing of Amazon’s new products, this new device with a 2.5 inch screen is to the Echo Show what the Echo Dot was to the original Echo. The device features a microphone and speaker to allow users to interact with Alexa, Amazon's voice assistant. But it also displays information like the time or the weather on the built-in screen, which can also be used to monitor security cameras or even for video chat. The $129 device could be Amazon’s way into the bedroom through the smart alarm clock.

All of Amazon’s new products serve to further its goal of spreading the Echo throughout every room of the home. More than three quarters of smart speaker owners keep their devices in a shared space like the living room or kitchen. Amazon, though, is looking for people to start buying multiple devices and keeping them all around the home.

That’s why it’s emphasized the aesthetic flexibility of the updated Echo, so it can fit in a kitchen, bedroom, living room, or anywhere else. The company has also offered bundles for many of its Echo devices, offering discounts for buying Echos in bulk. And now with the Echo Spot, Amazon is hoping to convince consumers to buy devices for the bedroom. Amazon was the first major entrant into the smart speaker category, and continues to cement its position as market leader as it looks to expand the role of the smart speaker in the home.

Smart speakers — Amazon's Echo, for example — are the latest device category poised to take a chunk of our increasingly digital lives. These devices are made primarily for the home and execute a user's voice commands via an integrated digital assistant. These digital assistants can play music, answer questions, and control other devices within a user's home, among other things.

The central question for this new product category is not when they will take off, but which devices will rise to the top. To answer this question, BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, surveyed our leading-edge consumer panel, gathering exclusive data on Amazon's recently released Echo Show and Echo Look, as well as Apple's HomePod.

Peter Newman, research analyst for BI Intelligence, has put together a Smart Speaker report that analyzes the market potential of the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod. Using exclusive survey data, this report evaluates each device's potential for adoption based on four criteria: awareness, excitement, usefulness, and purchase intent. Finally, the report draws some inferences from our data about the direction the smart speaker market could take from here.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Amazon's new Echo Show is the big winner — it has mass-market appeal and looks like it will take off. The combination of usefulness and excitement will drive consumers to buy the Echo Show. The Echo Look, though, seems like it will struggle to attract that same level of interest.
Apple’s HomePod looks likely to find a place in the smart speaker market but won’t dominate its space like the iPhone or iPad did.
The smart speaker market will evolve rapidly in the next few years, with more devices featuring screens, a variety of more focused products emerging, and eventually, the voice assistant moving beyond the smart speaker.

In full, the report:

Showcases exclusive survey data on initial consumer reactions to the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod.
Highlights the aims and strategies of major players in the smart speaker market.
Provides analysis on the direction this nascent market will take and the opportunity for companies considering a move into the space.

To get the full report, subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now

You can also purchase and download the full report from our research store.

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