Amazon Alexa Coming to Mexico in 2018, Developers Can Start Building Alexa Skills Now

• Alexa Skills Kit is now available to developers to build Alexa skills localized for Mexico
• Amazon Echo smart speakers will launch later in 2018, date not disclosed but November is a good bet
• Sonos and Bose will ship Alexa-powered smart speakers in Mexico in 2018
• This follows a June announcements of forthcoming Alexa availability in Spain in 2018
• Google Home smart speakers began shipping in Mexico in June 2018

Amazon announced in a blog post yesterday that Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) is now available for developers to begin building localized Alexa skills for Mexican Spanish. The company also announced that Alexa-enabled smart speakers from Amazon, Sonos and Bose will be available for purchase in Mexico before year end. And, other device makers can request early access to the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) so they too can offer devices with Alexa capabilities. In June, Amazon made a similar announcement for Alexa availability in Spain. Google Home smart speakers began selling in Mexico in June.

Mexico is considered critical because its 130 million residents make it the largest Spanish-speaking population globally by a large margin. Also, Amazon became the top online retailer in Mexico in 2017, more than doubling 2016 revenue to generate over $500 million in sales. The company hopes to use Alexa as an onramp to voice shopping and reordering to drive sales even higher.

Amazon Echo device availability in a country has followed ASK introduction by 64-112 days based on an earlier Voicebot analysis. This would put expected Echo smart speaker availability somewhere between mid-October and late November, in time for the bulk of the 2018 holiday shopping season.

Amazon and Google Are Following Each Other Around the Globe

We are seeing a close competition between Amazon and Google in releasing smart speakers localized for languages and countries around the world. To a lesser extent this is also true of Apple’s rollout of its HomePod smart speaker which is now available in six countries. As of today, Google Home smart speakers are available with language localization in 14 countries with a total of 19 announced for shipment in 2018. Amazon Echo smart speakers are available in 11 countries with 14 announced.

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