In 2013, Amazon acquired IVONA Software, eventually integrating many of its technologies into Amazon Polly . However, Eric was one of the few English voices that did make the transition to Polly. He was officially retired by IVONA in early 2017. Despite being retired, "Eric" remains alive through: Ivona™ Text to Speech Voices - NextUp.com
Eric gained mainstream traction for several reasons: ivona eric text to speech