Google Home Launches in Singapore, Devices Now in 10 Countries
Google Home and Google Home Mini launched yesterday in Singapore and are now available for purchase through the company’s online store. Singapore is now the tenth country offering Google Home devices for sale. The devices are also being sold at local retailers Challenger, Courts and StarHub. Google Home is selling for SGD $189 or about US $144 at today’s exchange rate. The Google Home Mini is priced at SGD $79 which is roughly US $60.
Google Home and Google Assistant support Singapore English with many clear localization features as well as standard features already available to device users in other markets. This includes Singapore news and dialect recognition along with integration to YouTube and external devices such as televisions.
Singapore Businesses Embrace Google Home
Singapore Airlines, National Library Board, OCBC Bank and Bus Uncle have released Google Assistant apps for Google Home. StarHub announced Wednesday that it had become the first local telco to offer Google Home in Singapore. The company also said it was offering free Google Home and Google Home Mini’s to new subscribers to its HomeHub Plus bundle which broadband, television and phone services. Challenger also said that its ValueClub members will receive SGD $20 discounts on Google Home devices.
The move by Google comes just one week after Google Home was launched in India and one month after launching in Italy. Google plans a rapid global expansion for Google Assistant localization and Google Home sales in 2018. Google previously announced that it planned to launch 30 languages for Google Assistant this year. Rishi Chandra, vice president and general manager for Home Products, told Channel News Asia that Singapore is “good model” for bringing new devices to the region. He commented:
(Singapore’s example) is a predictor to the future, and a good model to how it could enter the other Southeast Asia markets.
Based on these comments and Google’s planned language expansion for Assistant, you are likely to see other Southeast Asian countries become Google Home markets in 2018 as well.
Google Home Officially Arrives in India Without Hindi, Amazon Echo Goes on Sale
Google Assistant Coming to 30 Languages and Adding Multi-lingual Support in 2018
