Compared to last year, the voice-activated/enabled speaker market is expected to grow by 128.9-percent this year, based on a forecast by eMarketer. In number terms, eMarketer suggests that this year, 35.6 million Americans will use a voice-activated/enabled device, at least once a month.
According to eMarketer’s findings, Amazon will continue to dominate the market, although less so than in the past. As of April 2017, eMarketer states that Amazon occupied 70.6-percent of the voice-activated speaker market. Which is in stark contrast to the 23.8-percent market share, said to be occupied by Google Home, and the 5.6-percent share attributed to “Other.” However, eMarketer does expect the difference between Amazon and Google to narrow, as Google (and Google Home) continue to gain in popularity. Although, eMarketer does only expect Amazon’s market share to “fall slightly” with the company expected to maintain the lion’s share of the market. An aspect which is unlikely to change anytime soon with eMarketer noting that it expects Amazon to “remain the dominant player in the category for the foreseeable future.” Which could prove true if recent rumors are correct, as it is currently understood that as early as tomorrow (May 9), Amazon might introduce a new Amazon Echo device – one which comes equipped with a seven-inch display. Not only would such a device further increase Amazon’s standing in the market, but it will also add to the company’s reputation as being one of the leaders in this particular field.
As you might expect, the report does differentiate between a device that comes equipped with voice-activation and one which is equipped with a virtual assistant. While the underlying feature might be common to both, the difference in this report is focused on the primary functionality of a device. For instance, an Amazon Echo device’s main purpose of using Alexa, opposed to a device which happens to come equipped with Alexa as an added feature. Although, the report does also look to provide some insight on the state of the virtual assistant battle as well. With eMarketer expecting virtual assistant usage to grow by almost a quarter (23.1-percent) in 2017. Which means that while 35.6 million Americans are expected to use a voice-activated/enabled device (at least once a month) during this year, 60.5 million Americans are expected to use (at least once a month) one of the virtual assistants.