The holiday season has boosted the sales of smart speakers. According to the latest report by the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), 18 million units of smart speakers were sold in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The holiday season has boosted the sales of smart speakers. According to the latest report by the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), 18 million units of smart speakers were sold in the fourth quarter of 2017.
U.S. consumers now own about 45 million units of smart speakers. Amazon holds 69% of the market share (about 31 million units) while Google has 31% (around 14 million units).
Back in June 2017, there were only 20 million smart speakers sold in total and Google barely had a share in the market. Due the launch of Google Home Mini and the company’s clever marketing strategies, its products have started to pick up and had more sales during the holiday season.
“The Echo Dot continues to account for over half of all Echo units sold, and increased that share by a couple of percentage points in the holiday quarter. Google introduced its Home Mini toward the start of the holiday shopping quarter, and it grabbed over 40% of Google Home sales in the quarter,” said CIRP in the report.
Another interesting point found by CIRP is the number of speakers consumers own – 20% of Echo users have more than one device while 13% of Google Home users said so.
Regarding to the connected devices that work with the speakers, almost 60% of Google Home or Amazon Echo owners said they have at least one smart device, such as smart thermostat, connected light and security system.
While Amazon has strong distribution channels, Google is investing much to close the gap. Amazon has brought Alexa to another form factor with a display. At CES 2018 Google announced that Google Assistant will work with touch-screen devices and partnered with JBL, Lenovo, LG and Sony to launch devices to go after the Echo Show and Echo Spot.
It’s hard to predict who will win the voice assistant battle. Apple, Samsung and Microsoft, meanwhile, will all enter the smart speaker market this year. How the newcomers will tilt the market is still unknown.