The Amazon Echo Is Sold Out Until the End of January

But you can still buy the Dot for less and get (most of) the same functionality.
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Amazon Echo

Amazon's wildly popular Echo smart home appliance sold out days before Christmas — and won't be back in stock for weeks. Amazon's website says it won't be shipping any more of the $179.99 devices until January 25.

"Despite our best efforts and ramped-up production, we still had trouble keeping [Echo products] in stock," Amazon CEO of Worldwide Consumer Jeff Wilke said in a press release.

Amazon says it sold more than nine times the number of Echo devices it did last year, due likely in part to a 20% discount that made the Echo price-competitive with Google Home, its main competitor.

You Can Still Find an Echo — For a Price

Amazon's supply chain woes trickled down to their national resellers, nearly all of which ran out of Echoes. Shoppers willing to do some post-holiday footwork at regional retailers might be rewarded, but shouldn't expect the tech to be marked down like it frequently was during the Black Friday and holiday seasons.

Shoppers willing to do some footwork at regional retailers might be rewarded, but shouldn't expect the tech to be marked down.

A salesperson with Tennessee retailer Electronics Express told DealNews they had a handful in their warehouse as of Dec. 31, and Nebraska Furniture Mart listed the Echo as in stock in its Omaha store.

Amazon maintains a list of official resellers on its website, so if you're still looking for an Echo, check to see whether there's a brick-and-mortar retailer near you.

If all else fails, new Echoes are still popping up on eBay — though often for a substantial markup.

The Dot Is a Great Alternative

The Echo is a voice-controlled appliance that taps into Amazon's Alexa cloud services to accomplish a wide variety of tasks. With an Echo, you can control smart lights, stream music from a variety of services, or get information about things like recipes, unit conversions, or mixed drinks. But the Echo isn't the only device that can do all this.

SEE ALSO: What Is the Amazon Dot and Why Would You Want One?

While Amazon won't have any Echoes for weeks, the diminutive Amazon Dot ($49.99) and the portable Tap ($129.99) are available immediately.

The Amazon Dot provides the same functionality as the Echo for less than a third of the price, but has a much smaller speaker than the Echo. Instead, the Dot includes Bluetooth connectivity and a headphone jack, for easy connectivity to an external speaker. The Tap is similar to the Echo, but is portable, and only listens when you press a button on the unit.

Readers, will you wait for Amazon to get the Echo back in stock, pick one up on eBay, or consider something else? Let us know in the comments!


Sean Flynn
DealNews Contributing Writer

Sean is a freelance writer and photojournalist working in the Hampton Roads region. He has been a writer, adventure motorcyclist, drag racer, data nerd, shade-tree mechanic, and tornado chaser. Recommend good beers to him on Twitter at @wxgeek.
DealNews may be compensated by companies mentioned in this article. Please note that, although prices sometimes fluctuate or expire unexpectedly, all products and deals mentioned in this feature were available at the lowest total price we could find at the time of publication (unless otherwise specified).

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10 comments
jakinaka
Dealnews writes this kind of article to make you wanna buy the Echo products because they are a hot commodity and "sell out fast, so don't miss your chance". Proof: the small print at the end of the article that says "DealNews may be compensated by companies mentioned in this article." I'd prefer they be more up front about the fact that they are trying to sell you on this stuff.
JC769
Obviously you do if you read and then commented.. but some people really want one. Maybe their friend, cousin, uncle, whatever got one for Christmas and think it could be really useful for them. They're wondering when it's back in stock. This is a useful article.
skaets
who cares about this anyway.
rsg123
To add to the comment I just left: I could not justify spending more than $100 per device with so much advancement going on in the smart home industry. That's why I never seriously looked into Google Home. They have to come out with a Dot competitor and then I might try them out.
rsg123
I bought 2 Dots at the $39 discounted price. I discovered that they work with lots of my smart home devices (especially all of my Lutron Caseta switches and Ecobee thermostats) so I ordered 2 more. The microphone range and voice recognition quality is beyond anything I have used before--I have to ask Siri at least twice to turn on a light before it understands.
xterra
Why someone would want one is beyond me.
chadley25
You've lived your whole life without an Amazon Echo. Chances are really good you can go another three weeks.
Greg Huang
why only advertise the Amazon products, how about google home as an alternative?
Real Deal
They put out these BS out of stock reports to create demand. Don't fall for the hype. You're better off buying a PC
DeletedUser169775
Check out Home Depot and Best Buy - they may have these in stock at the store. At least I know one in NJ does as I returned it after Christmas.