In the second quarter of 2018, about 24% of U.S. households have a smart speaker, while 40% of these households have more than one unit, according to Nielsen
In the second quarter of 2018, about 24% of U.S. households have a smart speaker, while 40% of these households have more than one unit, according to a recent report by Nielsen, a global data and measurement company. The ownership grew from 22% in the first quarter.
The adoption of smart speakers in the U.S. is rising. 62% of smart speaker owners just started to use the device in the last six months, and 45% want to purchase more units for their home.
According to the survey, music listening is the most popular usage, with 90% of the respondents indicated this purpose. Search is the second popular usage – 81% use the speaker to get real-time info like weather or traffic updates, while 75% use it to check out factual information such as history. About 68% of the respondents use their smart speakers to listen to news, chat with the voice assistant just for fun, for alarms and timers.
Users sync the smart speaker mostly with mobile phone (32%), followed by TV (23%), another speaker (18%), lighting device and thermostat (17%) and security system (12%).
It appears that smart speakers have a big role in home entertainment rather than connected device control. One reason may be that most homeowners still don’t have connected devices at home. They might have purchased smart speakers to test them out and have fun, and may find other automation features when other smart devices are installed.
In regards to time spent on smart speakers, on average people spend 72 minutes per day on the weekend and 65 minutes per day during the week, and the peak usage time is between early evening and late night (4pm to 12am).
According to another study released by Adobe earlier this month, 32% of U.S. consumer now own a smart speaker, and the number is forecast to reach 50% by the end of this year.
Amazon unveiled several new Echo speaker models recently, and Google is expected to release its own speaker with display next week at its hardware event. The new product is expected to boost smart speaker sales in the coming holiday season.