Yandex amps up its premium offering with new smart speaker launch and subscription service
Yandex, also colloquially known as Russia’s answer to Amazon and Google, has today launched a smart speaker and a corresponding premium subscription service, alongside a range of expansions to its artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem and intelligent assistant Alice.
Known as Yandex.Station, the 9,990 roubles (£120) smart speaker is both Yandex’s first hardware product and the first smart speaker to be targeted towards the Russian market. Imbued with its intelligent AI assistant Alice, Russian users will be able to use voice commands to perform tasks in their homes, or view a full range of videos, movies and TV shows from sources like Yandex’s own video streaming service KinoPoisk, via an HDMI output.
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Yandex has also made Alice easier to access for third party developers, creating a skills platform called Yandex.Dialogues through which techies can create new skills for Alice and forge custom conversations with users.
The AI assistant first became available via Yandex’s Search and Browser apps on mobile phones last year, and was later added to the desktop version of Browser and to cars via Yandex.Navigator.
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The platform has also today unveiled a new premium subscription service, providing users with perks like access to Yandex’s Spotify-like streaming service, Yandex.Music, and a 10 per cent discount on Yandex.Taxi rides. Labelled as Yandex.Plus and billed at 169 roubles (£2) per month, the subscription will also give free delivery to users in over 30 locations across Russia on Yandex.Market, ad-free viewing on KinoPoisk and comes free for the first year with a purchase of the Yandex.Station speaker.
Speaking to City A.M., Yandex’s experimental products director Konstantin Kruglov said: “We are thrilled to introduce Russian users to the first smart speaker for this market.”
“At some point there will be more competition but we welcome it and think it’s healthy for innovation. This is just the first step for Yandex and we are excited to continue to develop our offerings and expand Alice’s integration in the home through our Yandex.IO solution that powers Station and can transform any device into an AI device.”