Google Leads Smart Speaker Shipments in Europe on Wider Language Support, Says IDC

The smart speaker market in Europe grew 23.9 percent in Q1, led by Google Home devices, which had 45.1 percent of shipments vs. 41.8 percent for Amazon Echo, said IDC Tuesday. Google continues to expand to new countries and support new native languages at a faster rate than Amazon, said analyst Antonio Arantes, noting Google Assistant was embedded in 49.2 percent of all smart speakers sold in Europe in the quarter. Amazon faced supply issues, with the Echo Dot out of stock in some countries for several weeks, he said. Some 21.3 million smart speakers shipped in Europe in the quarter; Western Europe had 88.3 percent share of shipments.