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US e-commerce giant Amazon prioritised bringing its Alexa-powered smart speakers to India over other countries where the company had been in business for far longer because it felt its voice-based solution could cut through literacy barriers far better than any smartphone app.While India has a massive base of 250 million smartphone users, that number still represents just a fifth of the country's population. For the remainder, the company feels a voice-based solution such as Echo and Alexa could be just as potent if not more potent than a smartphone to get them to shop online."India is actually the fourth country where we've launched Alexa and Echo. We prioritized it over various other markets where we have been a lot longer and that tells you the potential that we seen in the country," says Puneesh Kumar, Country Manager - India, Alexa Experiences and Devices at Amazon.The Echo speakers, which were launched in October, are far from devices that will help customers in rural India to ..