Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      Don’t expect Starlink in South Africa anytime soon

      24 June 2025

      Finally! Tribunal unpacks why it blocked Vodacom’s Vumatel deal

      24 June 2025

      Home affairs under fire over database fee hike

      24 June 2025

      Samsung to unveil new folding phones at July event

      24 June 2025

      Capital Appreciation banks on payments to offset software slump

      24 June 2025
    • World

      Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines hits $10-billion valuation

      24 June 2025

      Watch | Starship rocket explodes in setback to Musk’s Mars mission

      19 June 2025

      Trump Mobile dials into politics, profit and patriarchy

      17 June 2025

      Samsung plots health data hub to link users and doctors in real time

      17 June 2025

      Beijing’s chip champions blacklisted by Taiwan

      16 June 2025
    • In-depth

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025

      Digital fortress: We go inside JB5, Teraco’s giant new AI-ready data centre

      30 May 2025

      Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s big bet to out-Apple Apple

      22 May 2025
    • TCS

      TechCentral Nexus S0E3: Behind Takealot’s revenue surge

      23 June 2025

      TCS | South Africa’s Sociable wants to make social media social again

      23 June 2025

      TCS+ | AfriGIS’s Helen Hulett on how tech can help resolve South Africa’s water crisis

      18 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E2: South Africa’s digital battlefield

      16 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E1: Starlink, BEE and a new leader at Vodacom

      8 June 2025
    • Opinion

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025

      South Africa risks being left behind as stablecoins reshape global finance

      6 June 2025

      Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

      2 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Reviews & Weekend » Amazon unveils the Echo Show

    Amazon unveils the Echo Show

    By Agency Staff9 May 2017
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp

    Amazon’s voice-activated Echo speakers already tell you things. Now, they can show you stuff, too.

    On Tuesday, the company unveiled the Echo Show, which features a seven-inch touch screen that can pull up calendar appointments, display music lyrics, play videos and a lot more.

    The Echo Show will cost US$229 when it goes on sale in late June, $50 more than the current high-end model.

    The debut follows last month’s introduction of the Echo Look, which can evaluate a user’s wardrobe. Including the two new entrants, Amazon will have five products in the Echo line-up, all powered by the Alexa digital assistant.

    Amazon’s gadget business isn’t about big profits; it’s a way to hook consumers into the company’s fast-growing retail business and get people to sign up for the lucrative Prime subscription service.

    Meanwhile, Amazon has managed to outflank Google, which began selling its Home device two years after the Echo debuted, and Apple, which is still working on its own Siri-based version. Amazon won’t say how many Echos have been sold, but it has grabbed 70% of the US market for voice-assisted speakers, according to eMarketer, with Google accounting for most of the rest.

    In a demonstration at Amazon’s San Francisco offices, the Echo Show displayed full weather forecasts, news headlines and LeBron James highlights.

    The company says the device will also play camera feeds from such connected devices as baby monitors and camera-equipped door bells. Services that already connect to the Echo will be able to display information — say, how far an Uber is from your front door.

    Alexa currently supports 12 000 “skills”, Amazon’s term for third-party services, and over time will offer increasingly comprehensive information, such as the points scored by a specific player.

    “We’re not trying to build a phone or tablet interface on this, but extend that ambient nature of what you already have with an Echo,” says Amazon devices chief Dave Limp, who has been testing the Show at home for about a year.

    This is the first Echo speaker with a built-in camera. The 5-megapixel sensor makes possible a new video conferencing service that Amazon is rolling out alongside the new hardware.

    Similar to Apple’s FaceTime, the service lets people make video calls from one Echo Show to another, or between the Show and an updated Alexa app on a smartphone.

    The service doubles as an intercom, allowing a person to call an Alexa speaker in another room without a camera. Users can’t currently make cellphone calls via the Echo Show.

    The Echo Show screen is slightly smaller than an iPad mini’s and the same size as the Kindle Fire tablet. The Intel-powered device has better sound than its predecessor, eight microphones instead of seven and can now connect directly to WiFi, not solely via the Alexa smartphone app.

    By pushing a button, you can disable the camera and microphones. Limp says hackers won’t be able to activate the camera remotely.

    The new Echo will stream music from Amazon’s own service, Spotify and Pandora, but not Apple Music. “We’d love to have Apple, but they’re not super big” on opening up Apple Music integration, Limp says. (Apple Music subscribers can do a workaround by streaming audio from their smartphone to the Echo device via Bluetooth.)

    Will the new Echo enhance Amazon’s first-mover advantage?

    Photos of the Show — a black or white wedge of plastic — elicited decidedly mixed reviews on Twitter, with one person saying it belonged on Star Trek (presumably the original) and another comparing it with the Chumby, a chunky digital assistant whose maker filed for bankruptcy.

    The Show may also be too pricey for many consumers. A report released on Monday by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners in Chicago said the cheapest Echo product, the $50, hockey puck-shaped Dot, has accounted for more than half of the estimated 10,7m Echo devices sold since 2014.

    Plus Apple, maker of beautiful products even when they aren’t hits, potentially could leapfrog the Show. In a recent research note, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple may debut an Echo rival next month at the company’s annual developer’s conference.

    Apple employees have been testing a device at home for several months, according to people familiar with the matter. While marketing chief Phil Schiller recently talked up the benefits of having a screen on a voice-activated device, it’s not clear whether the Apple version will in fact have one.  — (c) 2017 Bloomberg LP

     



    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleInterview: Corien Vermaak on the Cybercrimes Bill
    Next Article Set-top box move is ‘good news’

    Related Posts

    Don’t expect Starlink in South Africa anytime soon

    24 June 2025

    Finally! Tribunal unpacks why it blocked Vodacom’s Vumatel deal

    24 June 2025

    Home affairs under fire over database fee hike

    24 June 2025
    Company News

    Communication costs exploding? Telviva has a fix for UK-SA teams

    24 June 2025

    Section 18A deductions and BEE points – a strategic choice for business compliance in 2025

    24 June 2025

    Huawei Watch Fit 4 Series: beauty, brains and a battery that won’t quit

    24 June 2025
    Opinion

    South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

    17 June 2025

    AI and the future of ICT distribution

    16 June 2025

    Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

    13 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.