Smart speakers have been the single hottest technology product of the past year. A year ago, around 20 million households had a smart speaker. After the holidays 39 million Americans had one in their house and most recently, approximately 66 million American homes have one. That’s about 35% of all homes, not bad for a product that’s only been around for a couple of years. Google’s a major player in the space and Apple entered it earlier this year, but no company comes close to what Amazon’s been able to do.
According to eMarketer, if you’re using a smart speaker, it’s likely Alexa you’re talking to. Here’s the most recent market share. Amazon comes in at 67%, while Google is at 29% and the others, led by Apple and Sonos are at 8%.
If you do some quick math you might realize that those numbers equal more than 100%. That’s because about 4% of homes have multiple smart speakers. What’s also pretty remarkable is that already more Americans are using smart speakers than using wearable technology, a category that’s been around years longer. The bottom line is that smart speaker technology has experienced the fastest adaptation of any consumer technology on record to date. Faster than computers, the internet, cell phones, smartphones, etc.
For that reason, there’s a good chance that like all of the aforementioned categories, if you aren’t using it already you might in the future. Although, in the future, there’s a good chance the technology will be embedded in other products rather than specifically being stand-alone devices.
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