Amazon's Version of Siri

The Amazon Echo is a portable speaker that is voice activated using the keyword Alexa. It can tell you the weather, play music, create lists, give you news reports, save information, act as a timer, and so much more. In the commercial for it you see the Echo in use from its delivery to a family to their daily usage of it. The father explains to his daughter that Echo is for the entire family to use; he uses it for morning news reports, the mother creates shopping lists and uses it for cooking in the kitchen, and the children use it like a toy to tell them jokes and listen to music. The advertisements concludes by saying that Echo has become part of their family. It's interesting that the commercial is told through the young daughter's voice as she says things about Echo and uses word that a child of her age would not normally say. How each member of the family uses Echo is also dependent on their role in their family. For example, the mother is the caretaker and head female of the house so it is her duty to ensure the shopping and cooking is taken care of and Echo helps her do so.

Advertisements for Echo are coming out just in time to get Amazon into the news and people buzzing about the website as Black Friday gets closer. Echo will be sold at $199, but at a discounted prince of $99 for members of Amazon Prime. Oddly, though, it is not currently for sale, neither is it available for presale. In fact, people have to request an invitation to buy the item. I repeat, an invitation. Because Amazon is using this idea of inviting people to buy Echo is gives the allusion that people should buy it because only certain people are invited to do so; like it would be prestigious to be one of the individuals invited to purchase the item. This invitation is actually just people putting their name on a list, very similar to the process people would go through when preordering an item.  "Kinley Pearsall, an Amazon spokesperson, wrote in an email that the company will start sending invitations and shipping the speaker 'in the coming weeks.' When you request an invitation you will get the following response, "Thank you for your request. If selected, you will receive an e-mail with an invitation to purchase in the coming weeks." Has Amazon's commercial for Echo convinced you to buy/ request an invitation to buy Echo?

Resource:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/06/amazon-echo-speaker-alexa_n_6116800.html?ir=Technology