It is an important market for its online retail offerings and selling
more smart speakers can lead directly to more online sales through voice commerce.
With stats like these and virtual assistants the star of the show at CES 2018, you can expect to see a lot
more smart speakers released soon.
Since the release of the Echo, Amazon has expanded to add
more smart speakers to the collection.
Be prepared for plenty
more smart speakers to come though: technology company Qualcomm has unveiled something called a «Smart Audio Platform», which it hopes will give consumer - tech manufacturers a running start making these kinds of devices.
It is an important market for its online retail offerings and selling
more smart speakers can lead directly to more online sales through voice commerce.
So, there are many opportunities to save today if you are looking to pick up
some more smart speaker and smart home equipment.
So, there are many opportunities to save today if you are looking to pick up
some more smart speaker and smart home equipment.
But aside from saying «Hey Siri, play me some music» there is plenty
more the smart speaker can do.
Not exact matches
The
smart speaker market will evolve rapidly in the next few years, with
more devices featuring screens, a variety of
more focused products emerging, and eventually, the voice assistant moving beyond the
smart speaker.
Already, 4K sets have proven to be a valuable market; they accounted for far
more sales dollars last year than wearable devices,
smart home appliances, and
smart speakers.
Apple has a lot of work to do on that front, chiefly in making Siri a
more competitive virtual assistant in the new age of
smart home
speakers.
Google was late to the market with its
smart speaker, which it started selling in the U.S. in November 2016,
more than a year after Amazon's Echo became widely available in the U.S..
Google recently said it sold
more than one Home
smart speaker device every second since October.
But it would help Apple rope in the
more hesitant customers on the fence about HomePod — and help Apple better compete in the already highly competitive world of
smart speakers.
Shortly thereafter, both companies added miniaturized versions of their
smart speakers that came in at a
more accessible price point.
These tiny
smart - home
speakers are already
more affordable than their «original» counterparts, but they can get even cheaper.
More than three quarters of
smart speaker owners keep their devices in a shared space like the living room or kitchen.
Voice assistants are integrating into
more and
more places; the
smart speaker market in particular is expected to grow 60 % from 2016 to 2017, according to Parks Associates research analyst Dina Abdelrazik.
And the products also offer other Alexa features, like
smart home control, shopping, and
more — think of it as an Alexa device mounted on your wall, rather than a stand - alone
speaker.
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And as
smart devices become
more incorporated into our homes and workplaces via gadgets like
smart speakers, TVs, and even doorbells, that congruence is going be a huge deciding factor for consumers in the years to come.
In addition, the swell of internet connected devices like
smart thermostats and
speakers is giving voice assistants
more utility in a connected consumer's life.
But if consumers are exposed to voice - controllable
smart home devices in hotel rooms for the first time, they might be
more inclined purchase these devices — and the
speakers that control them — for the home.
Even
more audiophile - oriented
speaker makers like JBL, Onkyo, Harman Kardon, and Libratone have also announced new products with
smart assistants from either Google or Amazon.
By making Alexa able to make calls on
more devices than just the company's lineup of Echo - branded
smart speakers or conventional smartphones, Amazon is hoping to spread Alexa to
more users and gain relevance.
HomePod has stiff competition in the
smart speaker space, with companies like Google and Amazon having their own,
more advanced, voice assistants.
This became abundantly clear during the holiday season, when both lowered the prices of their
smart speakers to get into
more homes.
As
more and
more individuals purchase voice - powered
smart speakers, the need for appropriate responses will only become
more important to brands.
For example, the social network canceled the announcement of a Facebook
smart home
speaker to challenge Amazon's Echo and Google's Home amid worries that the device would raise
more questions about the amount of data the company collects.
The availability of Amazon Music Unlimited and the Amazon Echo
smart speakers have expanded to 28
more countries in Latin America and Europe.
More than one - in - four
smart speaker owners say they have purchased something using voice and 11.5 % say they are using the feature monthly.
Consumers can already access the features elsewhere, but
smart speakers make that access
more convenient.
If you would like to reach
more about consumer use cases on
smart speakers, the entire report can be downloaded here.
It can be difficult to view the rise of voice assistants as a whole as
more voice assistants and their
smart speaker devices enter the market.
You can do the same math in HomePod multiples, but it may be that Amazon is
more focused on matching Google
smart speaker pricing than concerned about Apple.
More than half of
smart speaker owners report at least trying a game on their device and nearly one - third say they use them monthly.
The other big finding is that voice assistants on
smart speakers have broader usage than on smartphone despite their
more limited accessibility.
Radio appears to have much
more growth potential on
smart speakers.
In this Marketing Over Coffee: Learn about The New FB Feed, Screened
Smart Speakers, Containers and
more!
The low price points of Dot and Mini have also changed consumer perceptions about
smart speakers and enticed
more than 40 % of households to place them in multiple rooms.
The
more aggressive 7 million HomePod unit sales forecast by Loup Ventures would require total
smart speaker sales to
more than double in 2018.
The
more striking estimate by TrendForce is that Amazon's
smart speaker market share will fall to 51 % in 2018 while Google's will rise to 21.6 %, Alibaba to 6.3 %, Xiaomi to 5.1 % and others to 7.4 %.
Action: Say no to always - on voice assistants Who is this for: Anyone who values privacy
more than gimmickry How difficult is it: No real effort Tell me
more: There's a rash of
smart speaker voice assistants on shop shelves these days, marketed in a way that suggests they're a whole lot
smarter and
more useful than they actually are.
However, the
smart speaker race to launch in new countries is an important angle to the voice assistant competitive landscape and Amazon is moving toward checking off two
more countries right after the New Year.
However, the
more striking finding is that TrendForce estimates that every
smart speaker manufacturer will grow market share entirely at the expense of Amazon Echo.
Interestingly, the amount of consumers that never use their
smart speakers is 12.7 %, which exactly matches the number of heavy users that interact six or
more times per day.
As
more voice assistants and their
smart speaker devices enter the market, it can be difficult to view the rise of voice assistants as a whole.
Wirecutter looked at 10,250 listings to find these seven can't miss deals on strollers,
smart speakers, and
more.
Meanwhile, Google introduced shopping to its Home
smart speakers in February, and it integrated with
more than 40 retailers out of the gate, including Target and Costco.
Consumers that experience their first
smart speaker in a Marriott Hotel room may be
more likely to choose that brand as the first device for their own home.