Yandex creates first hardware product, smart speaker Yandex.Station

MOSCOW, May 29 (PRIME) -- Russian Internet giant Yandex has designed its first hardware product and its first smart speaker Yandex.Station for the country’s market, the company said on Tuesday in a statement.

“With the introduction of Yandex.Station, we are excited to bring our intelligent assistant from mobile devices into the Russian home,” Konstantin Kruglov, director of experimental products at Yandex, said. “Our high-quality smart speaker offers Russian users the benefits of a highly localized intelligent assistant, unique options for audio and video streaming, and superior sound quality.”

Yandex.Station will cost 9,990 rubles and will be available in June–August. Buyers will also receive a one-year subscription to Yandex.Plus, a bundled offering combining multiple Yandex services, including a full subscription to Yandex.Music, advertising-free video streaming on KinoPoisk, in addition to discounts on Yandex.Taxi and Yandex.Drive, and others.

The new device is equipped with Yandex’s Russian-speaking intelligent assistant, Alice, which has been available on mobile since launch in October 2017 and is soon arriving in the car with Yandex’s connected car platform.

Yandex.Station provides a complete in-home multimedia entertainment experience. As the first smart speaker with both audio and video capabilities, it not only plays music but also streams films, videos and television through its HDMI port to any connected display. Currently, Yandex.Station has access to Yandex’s video streaming service KinoPoisk, as well as a wide range of other content including premium local video service providers ivi and Amediateka.

Separately, Yandex.Plus provides subscribers with multiple services of the company, including unlimited music streaming, ad-free movies, discounts for taxi and car-sharing rides, and others.

Yandex.Plus is available to subscribers in the country for 169 rubles per month. Current Yandex.Music subscribers in Russia will automatically become members of Yandex.Plus.

(62.2710 rubles – U.S. $1)

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