Amazon Prime users who want to get a $100 discount on the company’s Echo virtual assistant need to act soon, because everyone will have to pay $199 for the privilege of owning one of the devices after April 7.
That’s the news from a small notice added to the Amazon Echo page, where users can request an invitation to purchase one of the devices. Until April 7, Prime customers who sign up for an Echo invite can lock in a $99 price when the device becomes available to them. After that, they’re stuck paying $199 with the plebeians.
Echo is designed to give people an easy way to access information on the web just by speaking. The device comes with support for telling users about traffic conditions, sports scores, and even shooting back popular film one-liners when need be. Just yesterday, the device received an update that allows people to control Pandora radio stations just by talking to the Echo, which goes by “Alexa.”
Amazon recently announced a software development kit for Echo, which will allow third-party developers to build integrations for the device.
It’s not clear yet what the price increase means for Echo’s overall lifecycle, but it may signal that Amazon is fairly happy with the number of people it has signed up to test the device.