Google finally unveiled their much anticipated Google Home devices at a media event in New Delhi on Tuesday, 10 April. Google brought with it the Google Home and Google Home Mini. This comes several months after Amazon launched its Echo line of smart speakers powered by Alexa.
By bringing these products to India, Google has reinforced the fact that India is a key hardware market for the company. An Economic Times report said that Google plans to launch several other hardware devices like the Google Pixelbook, Google Wi-Fi mesh routers and a cheaper Google Pixel.
Whilst the market is niche, it is growing, and Google let Amazon do all the leg work before it got into the game. Google Home was launched way back in October of 2016 in the USA, and the Google Home Mini in 2017. Google also has the Google Home Max on sale in the USA, but there are no plans to bring it to India, as of yet.
Google Home and Google Home Mini are priced at Rs 9,999 and Rs 4,499 respectively, matching the prices of Amazon’s Echo and Echo Dot speakers. They will be available exclusively on Flipkart and in over 750 offline retail stores like Reliance Digital, Croma and Vijay Sales. Customers also get six months complimentary subscription to Play Music.
Google Home comes in Chalk colour while the Google Home Mini comes in both Chalk and Charcoal, with the Coral option coming soon.
NOTE: The only difference between Google Home and Google Home Mini is the size and the quality of the audio hardware.
Google Home evaluated market before launching
The reason that Google took its time before launching these devices is that the Indian market is fraught with complexities. There are many local languages spoken in India and many different accents. Accounting for all of this, is a big task for any virtual assistant/smart speaker. Google, for its part, says that Hindi compatibility is coming sometime later this year. Google Assistant in Hindi did roll out a couple of weeks ago, so not bringing it to the speaker at launch, is a big mistake.
Google Home is like any smart speaker. One that has a whole list of features from setting reminders, to hearing the news, to playing music, getting travel and weather updates and even letting the Google Assistant tell you about your day ahead.
Google Home looks is more aesthetically pleasing than the Amazon Echo. It’s like a coffee table product. Meant to just sit there and enhance the artistic value of the room, whilst doubling up as a smart speaker. It’s got a fabric base with four LED lights at the top whenever someone says “Ok, Google” or “Hey, Google”. There are controls for music playback and simple volume controls.
With a large Android user base, the smart speaker market will grow rapidly over the next few years. Since a lot of people are familiar with the Google Assistant already, picking up the Google Home will be a no-brainer for some of them.
Some questions for Google Home
Google Home is not at all portable. The smart speaker need to be plugged in at all times. “The Google Home device must be plugged into a wall outlet at all times to work. It doesn’t have a battery”, reads a Google Support page.
Thereafter, the Google Home devices also need to have an active connection at all times. Without these two things, the Google Home smart speaker will not work.
Two speakers & two sounds. Google Home can connect to a Bluetooth speaker to enhance the sound quality of the Assistant. The problem here is that, the Google Home cannot play two different sounds from two different devices. For example, if one would like to connect to a Bluetooth speaker to listen to music and have the Google Home read out a recipe, it is not possible. One command at one time.
It’s strange that in a country with English as the second language for most of its citizens, Google chose to make it the default language on the Google Home devices. It is strange because the Google Assistant rolled out Hindi compatibility a couple of weeks ago.
Nonetheless, it is good that Google Home has finally been brought to India. Amazon Echo had several months head start, but Google has brought to India some serious competition. Pricing them at exact same price as the Amazon Echo seems like Google knows it has the better ecosystem out of the two.
Google also says that the Assistant or Google Home will “continue to get better over time as we add more features” and that “Google Home is open to third-party apps for the Assistant”. That’s definitely a leg-up on Amazon’s Echo. (Catch News)
