Amazon retains dominant position in smart speaker market, despite rising competition
Experts say the item has built a "convincing lead" over rival products
E-commerce giant Amazon’s Alexa-enabled smart speakers continue to comprise a large share of the market, even as competitors introduce rival products.
According to data from eMarketer, this year Amazon’s Echo devices will make up nearly 70 percent of the smart speakers used in the U.S., down from nearly 73 percent last year and 82.4 percent in 2017. Google’s devices made up 31.7 percent of the smart speaker U.S. market share, followed by 18.4 percent for “other” brands including Apple HomePod, Harmon Kardon Invoke and Sonos One. The data adds up to more than 100 percent because some people use more than one device.
“Since Amazon first introduced the Echo, it has built a convincing lead in the US and continues to beat back challenges from top competitors,” Victoria Petrock, a principal analyst at eMarketer, said in a statement. “We had previously expected Google and Apple to make more inroads in this market, but Amazon has remained aggressive.
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While eMarketer notes that the Amazon Echo enjoys a number of advantages over rival’s products – like its compatibility with thousands of Amazon-branded and third-party smart-home devices – it’s at a slight disadvantage in some countries because it supports fewer languages than some competitors.
The Amazon Echo smart speaker (third generation) has a listing price of $100. Google’s Home retails for around the same amount.
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Apple’s HomePod retails for about $300, while the Harmon Kardon Invoke costs around $250. The Sonos One (Gen 2) costs about $200.
It is estimated that there will be 83.1 million smart speaker users this year, according to eMarketer.
