Amazon launched Echo products ranges first in US in 2014

In a statement, the company said customers who want to help further the development of Alexa and the Echo family of devices may request an invitation to purchase devices beginning on Wednesday at www.amazon.in.

"As a thank you, for a limited time, eligible customers will receive an introductory discount of 30% off the purchase price of Echo devices and one year of Prime membership. Devices will ship beginning the week of October 30th," states the company.

In India, Alexa delivers a customised Indian experience, including an all-new English voice with local pronunciations and intonation. "It will support for music titles, names, and places in additional non-English languages. It will also have local knowledge and local skills from Indian developers," states the company.

Third party developers in India are already building new, localised skills for Alexa, and over 10,000 skills will be available for customers in India, including skills from Saavn, ESPNcricinfo, Ola and Freshmenu etc. , and more. Commenting on the launch, Amazon Devices and Services Senior Vice President Dave Limp said tens of millions of customers are already using Alexa and the company is excited to bring her to India.

"The Eco products will have all-new experience designed from the ground up for our customers in India. The combination of Alexa and Echo provides customers with hands-free access to music, weather, news, information, and more—just ask," he said.

Developers can use the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) to build skills. More than 10,000 skills will be available at launch with Alexa in India. While Echo is priced at Rs 9,999, Amazon India is launching Echo Plus for Rs 14,999 and Echo Dot for Rs 4,499. Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot will also be available at Croma, Reliance Digital stores and other offline retailers following the invite-only period.

Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos last year said the company would invest $3 billion in India. "We're grateful that customers are responding — Amazon.in is the most visited and the fastest growing marketplace in India," Bezos said during the first quarter earnings in April. And Amazon's original content team has been focusing on localized TV shows as part of its Prime service in India.