Alexa-powered devices are flying off the virtual shelves during Amazon’s supersized Prime Day shopping event.
Amazon said it has already sold twice as many Alexa-powered devices in the U.S. as it did during last year’s Prime Day. Globally, it has tripled last year’s Prime Day sales of the Echo family of devices. Overall, Amazon said earlier today it is seeing “shopping at record levels” for Prime Day.
Amazon has put a lot of hype into the Echo devices for this year’s Prime Day, slashing the price of the flagship Echo speaker in half to $89.99 and discounting the Echo Dot by $15 to $34.99. In the first few hours of Prime Day, which began at 6 p.m. Monday and ends at midnight tonight, the Echo was the top selling item in the U.S.
Amazon has been the early leader in the voice market, and it is taking advantage of that momentum to build several other Alexa-powered devices. In April it announced the $200 Echo Look, with a hands free camera and machine learning-powered style assistant. Amazon followed that up in May, announcing the $230 Echo Show with a touchscreen. Then in June it unveiled the $20 Dash Wand with Alexa, a virtual kitchen assistant.
Amazon has been piling up the capabilities for Alexa devices with the Echo, with the number of voice-activated “skills” now topping 15,000.
The smart speaker market seems to be getting more competitive by the day. In recent months, Apple, Samsung and Alibaba have joined Amazon, Google and others in the smart speaker race.
