Amazon will introduce a voice-recognition service called Amazon Echo, which comes with a speaker-like wireless device, just in time for the holidays.
The device offers updates on weather and news and provides hands-free voice control for Amazon services like Prime Music, according to the Associated Press. It has an app for tablets and smartphones as well.
Amazon has been working towards expanding its offerings for members of its $99 annual Prime club and other Amazon shoppers. The company introduced the smartphone, the Fire, earlier this year, and started offering a set-top video streaming device, a streaming video service, grocery delivery, music streaming and original TV shows.
"Amazon is the first to put a persistent microphone interface in your home, a listening and learning service that is ready to hear your every command," said Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey, according to the Associated Press report. "Sure, it doubles as a connected speaker and some people will end up buying it for that, but the Echo will only achieve its real purpose when you start asking it questions, having it complete tasks for you - especially shopping tasks - just the way Apple hopes its users will interact with Apple Watch."
The Echo is available by email request only and costs $199, or $99 for Amazon Prime members. It competes with similar voice-recognition services like Apple's Siri.
Users won't be able to purchase anything through Echo yet however, except for digital music available on Amazon Music. The Wi-Fi only device is able to play music from Amazon and other services like Spotify and iTunes.
The Echo can also give weather reports, set timers and alarms, answer common questions like how to spell words and find information from websites like Wikipedia.
In October, Amazon forecast sales for the ever-important holiday quarter that disappointed Wall Street and investors who are looking to see Amazon curtail its ambitions and start delivering maintainable earnings, according to Reuters.
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