Amazon had sent out press invites yesterday for an event to be held in London, U.K., on the 14th of this month, and while there’s no official confirmation about Amazon’s plans for that day, large sections of the tech media in the country are expecting the company to launch its ‘Echo’ range of smart speakers in the country. As for the press invites, they didn’t really reveal anything either. The only information provided were the date, the time and the venue for the press conference, fuelling speculations about what the U.S. retail giant may have in store for its U.K. customers. While we’re no closer to officially knowing anything about Amazon’s plans, the company’s very own AI-driven voice assistant, Alexa, might just have given the game away.
According to a short video posted on Instagram by U.K.-based tech journalist, Mr. Matt Brian, Alexa might have just dropped the biggest hint about Amazon’s plans for September 14th. In the video, Mr. Brian is heard asking Alexa, “What’s happening on September 14th?”. In her typical tongue-in-cheek fashion, Alexa fires back, “I promised I wouldn’t tell, but a visit to London has always been on my bucket list”. While that’s still not 100% confirmation, it is all we have to go by for now, unless Amazon actually comes out and says it loud and clear. Is it still too early to call it? Probably, but it’s hard to imagine Amazon not bringing its much-loved smart speakers to the U.K in spite of dropping such strong hints.
Meanwhile, even as most sections of the British tech media are now seemingly convinced about the impending U.K. launch of the Amazon Echo, there’s no word on whether the company will also bring some of its other hardware to the country on that day. Amazon has already launched new Fire tables and an all-new TV set top box in the U.S. earlier this year, but is yet to launch any of them across the pond. As for the Amazon Echo, there’s obviously no clarity either about whether the U.S. online retail giant is planning to bring just the original device, or the entire range, including the newer Echo Dot and Amazon Tap that were launched earlier this year in the U.S.