Amazon is likely to release a premium Alexa-based Echo Speaker with 7-inch touchscreen next year. The new speaker will target kitchens, and cost more than the current speakers.
Amazon is believed to be into developing a new 7-inch tablet. However, that’s just half the story as the new tablet will be integrated with its Echo speaker family; so much that it can well be considered as a new Echo Speaker variant sporting a 7-inch touchscreen.
Running its proprietary FireOS, the new Amazon Echo will be a more premium offering and is intended to help maintain Amazon’s leadership in the smart voice-controlled home gadget segment. Amazon Echo speakers have already proved to be a surprise success, enough for the likes of Google and Apple to consider fielding competitors to it.
Whether the new smart home gadgets from Google or Apple prove to be good enough to dominate the market remains to be seen though what is a surety is that the Echo speaker will be a grand affair. The display is rumored to be slightly tilted upwards to allow for easy visibility when placed on, say a table or bookshelf.
The display will provide users with a nice and convenient option to catch up with information like the latest news, weather updates and so on. Those apart, the new display enabled Echo speaker will also significantly enhance the scope of what has so far been only a smart speaker that responds to voice inputs.
As such, the new Echo should also prove to be an excellent entertainment device as well, should it allow for playing games or watching movies too; or, for that matter, listening to the latest chartbusters given its antecedents as a speaker system. Further, the speakers are likely to be placed at the rear and are also believed to be of a more premium quality than the current Echo speakers.
The Echo speakers as of now are designed to provide for the best listening pleasure in the medium-volume range, with sound quality tending to deteriorate when volume increases. That sure will be improved upon with the new high-end Alexa variant which will have quality sound output over a much larger volume range.
Another reason for the popularity of the Echo speakers is, of course, its Alexa smart assistant that responds to voice commands. Alexa’s integration with a plethora of other services has also contributed to its success so that users can now call Echo and ask it to book a cab or order pizzas and so on.
The new premium Echo is only expected to build on the success of its predecessors though it remains to be seen what other functionalities it comes to offer.
