Since it was launched in late 2014, Amazon‘s home speaker/virtual assistance device “Echo” has been ranking consistently in the best sellers list. The company has been constantly adding new features to the device and integrating it with other products and services to make the personal assistant increasingly useful. Recently, Amazon launched an updated version of Echo Dot (the cheaper variant of Echo) that costs $50 – nearly half the price of the original. While the speaker of this version does not output as much sound as the larger Echo, it gives the user access to all 3,000 capabilities of Amazon’s virtual assistant “Alexa”. A cheaper version is an indication that Amazon wants to rapidly increase the usage of Echo. One of the reasons for this focus could be the fact that Echo owners spend more on its e commerce site, thus driving overall revenues for Amazon. We believe that the focus on Echo is definitely working in Amazon’s favor. As the company integrates its virtual assistant with additional products and services, it will increase Echo’s dominance in this market. It will also work as a catalyst to drive revenues on Amazon’s e-commerce website.
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