Amazon and Google lead global smart speaker market: Strategy Analytics

Jeff Bezos-led Amazon and internet giant Google accounted for 70% of the global smart speaker shipments in the first quarter of 2018, news agency IANS stated, citing a report by market research firm Strategy Analytics.

Apple was trailing behind in the fourth position and has only sold around 600,000 HomePods during the first quarter in which total shipments of speakers reached 9.2 million units, the research firm found.

The report further added that Amazon was still leading the segment with 43.6% market share and four million speakers shipped during the period followed by Google at 26.5% market share with 2.4 million units sold. Jack Ma-led Alibaba came in third with just 7.6% of the market followed by Apple, which accounted for 6% of the market.

“Amazon and Google accounted for a dominant 70% share of global smart speaker shipments in Q1 2018 although their combined share has fallen from 84% in Q4 2017 and 94% in the year-ago quarter,” David Watkins, director at Strategy Analytics, was quoted as saying. The research firm attributed the strong sales to growth of smart speakers in China where Amazon ad Google don't sell their products.

“Alibaba and Xiaomi are leading the way in China and their strength in the domestic market alone is proving enough to propel them into the global top five,” Watkins was quoted as saying.

At its annual developer conference last week, Google had said that the Assistant, rolled out just three years back, can now be accessed on 500 million devices across 30 languages in 80 countries. The company had also said that the Assistant is also available in over 40 car brands and 5,000 connected devices.

In contrast, Amazon's Alexa is believed to be available across 4,000 connected devices. However, surveys released in May last year claim that Alexa has a clear lead over Google. An Emarketer report from May 2017 found that Amazon dominates the voice-controlled speaker market in the US at 70.6%, while Google Home captured 23.8%.

Another report from VoiceLabs published in January last year also ranked Alexa as the leading AI voice in terms of market share. Survey data from Edison Research released last June found that Amazon Alexa-enabled devices had 82% market share compared to just 18% for Google Home.