Amazon Echo with Alexa coming to India this year: Regional language support in the offing

Smart homes still have some way to go before hitting the mainstream in India, but they're generating sufficient amount of interest among the consumers. There is a wide range of smart home products out there, but Google, Amazon and now Apple have hit the sweet spot with their Home, Echo and HomePod smart speakers, respectively.

Despite their popularity, none of these smart home devices have made their way to India. There could be many reasons, but consumer demand and acceptability of new technology paves way for relevant products. It appears one of the three major players are ready to test the waters in India.

Amazon Echo is one of the earliest smart speakers in the market which has received praise for its seamless integration with third-party smart home gadgets and Alexa voice assistant. While Amazon services are huge in India, Echo and Alexa have shown no sign of coming to this part of the sub-continent. But don't lose hope just yet.

ET reported that the e-commerce giant might actually have plans to bring its Echo smart speaker to India. The report cited two unnamed sources confirming that Amazon will bring its Alexa Voice Service (AVS) and Echo smart speaker to India by the end of this year.

Initially, Alexa will support English language only, but it is also expected to be updated with regional Indian languages, including Hindi, Tamil and Marathi, the sources added. International Business Times, India, has sent out a request to respond to this information, but the company hasn't answered yet.

On a similar note, we were hit back with a response in March when asked about Amazon Echo's release in India.

Internationalization of all our products is super important, and Alexa and Echo are no different. We expect over time to go everywhere Amazon is, but I have nothing to share today about availability outside the US, UK and Germany."

According to the latest report, Amazon is already working on a multilingual interface at its Chennai facility along with extra features such as booking a cab or placing orders online.

Amazon Echo has been quite successful in the U.S. Despite stiff competition from Google Home and the recently-launched Apple HomePod, Amazon leads the market with 70.6 percent share in the U.S. But India is nothing like the US market, hence Amazon will need new strategies such as aggressive pricing and attractive offers to continue Echo's success internationally.