Echos Everywhere
Yesterday, Amazon announced Echos would now ship to a total of 30 countries. This is a multi-fold expansion of where they would ship before and that Amazon may be positioning itself to be more than US-centric.
What could the implications of this expansion be?
- Amazon will be able to collect much more data (voice samples, network usage, home automation support, etc.)
- It could expand it’s Alexa Calling support to a worldwide network
- These devices could serve as a very large distributed network for AWS. Can Echo users get credit back for this?
- Will this slow adoption of Apple Music / Apple HomePod into these countries? (The announcement comes together with an Amazon Music Unlimited rollout)
The good thing about this announcement is that it will help bring voice-first adoption to more countries faster.
