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Amazon brings the Echo to Japan

Amazon has released its Echo smart speakers in Japan, continuing its expansion of the family of devices beyond the US and Europe, reports TechCrunch.
The company will also make the Alexa voice assistant available in the country in Japanese and will open up the Alexa platform to allow Skills, or voice-based apps for the platform, to be developed in the language.
Moving into Japan will bring Alexa availability up to six countries total, with three languages. Last month, Amazon announced the Echo was coming to India, but it didn’t add support for local languages, instead allowing users in the country to speak to the device in English like they can in the US and UK.
The company did update Alexa’s voice recognition software to better account for local accents and the particular nuances of Indian English. With Japan, though, the company has introduced full support for Japanese language input as well as Skills, allowing Japanese consumers to fully engage with the devices. Amazon’s entry into the Japanese smart speaker market follows the launch of Line’s Clova Wave and Google’s Home in the country, both also sporting native language support.
As smart speakers grow more popular around the world, global companies like Google and Amazon are going up against local competitors. The latter group is able to create devices with a more controlled user experience, dedicating all of their resources to supporting a voice assistant conversant in a single language.
A company like Amazon, on the other hand, has to spread out its resources, forming teams to develop natural language processing for multiple locales. The user experience and naturalness of interacting with a smart speaker is a critical part of attracting and retaining users, and while Amazon or Google might be able to relate global lessons in smart speaker use to their devices in nonnative markets, they won’t have as much contextual experience in markets like China, Japan, or India compared with local developers, which could give the latter a key advantage.
BI Intelligence, has put together a Smart Speaker report that analyzes the market potential of the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod. Using exclusive survey data, this report evaluates each device's potential for adoption based on four criteria: awareness, excitement, usefulness, and purchase intent. Finally, the report draws some inferences from our data about the direction the smart speaker market could take from here.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
  • Amazon's new Echo Show is the big winner — it has mass-market appeal and looks like it will take off. The combination of usefulness and excitement will drive consumers to buy the Echo Show. The Echo Look, though, seems like it will struggle to attract that same level of interest.
  • Apple’s HomePod looks likely to find a place in the smart speaker market but won’t dominate its space like the iPhone or iPad did.
  • The smart speaker market will evolve rapidly in the next few years, with more devices featuring screens, a variety of more focused products emerging, and eventually, the voice assistant moving beyond the smart speaker.
In full, the report:
  • Showcases exclusive survey data on initial consumer reactions to the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod.
  • Highlights the aims and strategies of major players in the smart speaker market.
  • Provides analysis on the direction this nascent market will take and the opportunity for companies considering a move into the space.
To get the full report, subscribe to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now

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