Amazon is planning a wall-mounted Echo that can be used to control your smart home

Amazon is working on a new Echo device that can be wall-mounted and comes with a large touchscreen. Reports have it that it's going to serve as a smart home control panel, a video chat device and a media player. 

According to people in the know, Amazon's Lab126 hardware division is designing this wall-mounted device to be a digital command centre that will show users upcoming calendar events, control smart home accessories likes smart lights and locks and also play music and videos. This will include Amazon's Alexa voice assistant and come with mics and a camera for video conferencing. 

This device is going to compete with professionally installed smart home control screens from companies like Control4, Apple's iPads that have been wall-mounted and Amazon's own Echo Show that can be used with a third-party wall mount. 

Reports indicate that Amazon is considering multiple variations of the device with either a 10-inch display or a 13-inch display. If Amazon decides to go with the 10-inch display that will be on par with the current Echo Show. If it picks the 13-inch display that's going to become the largest device with a display from the company yet. This device is also expected to be slimmer than the Echo Show. 

Amazon plans to launch the device by the end of 2021 or by 2022 and the prices are expected to range between $200 to $250 ( ₹14,567 to ₹18,209 approx) as per internal discussions. However, all these plans are in their initial stages and there is a possibility that they might be entirely scrapped or changed. 

This isn't the first time Amazon has shown an interest in wall-mounted devices. In 2018 they had the Echo Wall Clock which was an analog clock that showed timers set with an Alexa speaker. There are also several accessories for attaching the current Amazon Echo speakers to walls that are available on the Amazon website.