North America is the largest smart speaker market, representing 93% of the global market share in 2016, Beige Market Intelligence says.
About 13 million U.S. households had purchased at least one smart voice assistant speaker until December 2016. North America has shown much growth. The demand for smart voice assistant speakers nearly more than doubled between 2014 and 2015 in the area.
Until March 2017, the US remain the only market in North America where smart voice assistant speakers were launched officially. However, Google Home is set to release in the Canadian market in the second half of 2017.
Major new entrants in the global smart voice assistant speaker market are likely to be based out of the U.S. in the future. Increasing funding of R&D for the introduction of smart speakers, which can be lighter, compact and have differentiated functionalities, will contribute to the growth, Beige says.
In Asia, companies have also invested in the smart speaker endeavor. Messaging app Line will soon rolled out smart speakers powered by its virtual assistant Clova.
Electronics giants such as Sony, Panasonic and Sharp must be thinking about using virtual assistants, said Kazuo Hiyane, general manager of advanced technology at Mitsubishi Research Institute. However, content providers may be better suited to enter the smart speaker market. “I think other Japanese makers can make speakers, but I don’t think they can create content ecosystems,” Hiyane said.
Since Sony has music content, it may have a chance to compete with the rivals, but other electronics firms, such as Panasonic and Sharp, don’t really have soft content, so they will have a hard time providing attractive content platforms, Hiyane added.
While some media describe AI speakers as a new tech trend following the smartphone revolution, some experts believe the speakers themselves are not the core value.