Smart Speaker Market Share Holds Steady in Q2; Amazon Far Ahead With 70%

Apple’s $299 HomePod continues to lag the smart speaker market leaders, holding 5 percent market share in Q2, behind Amazon, 70 percent, and Google Home, 25 percent, blogged Consumer Intelligence Research Partners Thursday. Continued “aggressive pricing” of entry-level models appears to encourage new customers to try a smart speaker and lure existing owners to consider adding more devices,” said CIRP analyst Josh Lowitz. Amazon and Google are trying to capture households that will be loyal to the Alexa or Google Assistant platforms, said analyst Mike Levin: “The next frontier is monetizing those platforms.” The smart speaker category grew by 9 percent sequentially in Q2 to 76 million units and by more than 50 percent year on year, CIRP said. Findings were based on a survey of 500 U.S consumers July 1-10 who owned a smart speaker as of June 30.