Gadgetory

Amazon's next version of the echo smart speaker could come with a large touchscreen at least that's according to Bloomberg with two sources saying that Amazon wants to expand the echo speaker line-up with a high-end model that comes with a 7-inch touchscreen and Amazon may debut this new product sometime in the first quarter of 2017 the echo and it's voice assistant Alexa have been a huge success for Amazon it's estimated that amazon sold more than 5 million echo speaker since it came out in november of 2014 and 2 million were just from this year that's according to a report from the consumer intelligence research partners if you're unfamiliar with the echo products they are more than just something that can play music and tell you the weather voice commands can also control numerous other smart home products such as smart lights or thermostat so if Amazon wants to expand on the success of the voice controlled speaker playing a touch screen on it could be a way to create a high-end product in the lineup that people may want to keep in their kitchen for a quick glance at the weather calendar appointments news and maybe as a control screen hub for all the smart devices in your home Bloomberg sources say this new echo would be designed differently with a larger high-end speaker and a screen that tilts upward so you could see it easily when it's sitting on a countertop Google is hoping to ride the wave of echo success with its own new smart speaker called Google home but if there's a premium echo with a screen it could make the Google home look like it's one step behind now before I sign off there's one more bit of news to report after five years these little cnet update news reports are coming to an end yeah our last cnet update will be wednesday but i'm not going away and we're still giving you the news we're just switching things up a bit on you to keep things fresh I'll have more details in our final episode so stay tuned I'm Bridget Carey thanks for watching you