Global Adoption of Smart Speakers ‘Continues to Defy Expectations,’ Says Report

Global adoption of smart speakers “continues to defy expectations and there are clear signs that the market is starting to move from the early adopter phase to hitting the mass market,” Strategy Analytics reported Thursday. North America dominated in Q3 with nearly 75 percent global share, though growth in Western Europe and Asia Pacific will reduce that in Q4, it said. Amazon had the top global share with 66.9 percent, down from 93.5 percent in Q3 2016. SA pegged Google’s share at 25.3 percent. Competition “is becoming fierce as the fledgling category welcomes new entrants such as Harman Kardon, Sony and Sonos, all of whom have a much richer audio heritage than Amazon or Google,” said the researchers. They foresee that the “competitive landscape will heat up even further in 2018 and we expect to see the introduction of a new wave of third party devices.”