Amazon Maintained Slight Edge Over Google in 2018 Smart Speaker Shipments

Amazon edged out Google in 2018 smart speaker shipments by a percentage point, Canalys reported Monday. Total 2018 industry shipments reached 78 million units worldwide, up 125 percent from the year before, with Amazon shipping 24.2 million Echo devices and Google shipping 23.4 million units in the Home line. Apple didn’t place in the top five, which included China vendors Alibaba (8.9 million), Xiaomi (7.1 million) and Baidu (3.6 million). Other manufacturers shipped a total 10.8 million. Echo’s holiday season refresh, with focus on sound and aesthetics, boosted its revenue by 31 percent over the year-ago quarter, said the researcher. For 2019, Amazon is expected to switch gears and extend Alexa’s reach into the automotive market via developers and device vendors, analyst Jason Low forecast, saying Amazon needs to support third-party companies in the Alexa ecosystem or risk “waning commitment.” Google’s $149 Home Hub smart display was a Q4 highlight with 2.2 million shipments, helping Google become the second largest smart display vendor for the year. Smart display shipments totaled 6.4 million units in 2018, for an 8.3 percent share of the smart speaker category. Estimating 80 percent of the global smart speaker market comprises ISPs and software companies, Low said Samsung, Huawei and Apple “failed to capitalize” on the growth of smart assistants in the home and risk falling further behind as voice assistant leaders expand penetration in vehicles and offices.