An analyst from Morgan Stanley says that giving out Google Home Mini’s could help Google. How exactly this would benefit the search company was laid out by analyst Brian Nowak, who believes that Google could catch up to Amazon, thought to be the current dominant force in smart speakers with its Echo line powered by Alexa. Nowak says that Google could gain a lead on Amazon with its retail search queries if every home in America had a Google Home Mini smart speaker in it, and he suggests that Google could win out by doing just that, giving a speaker to every single home in America, which he points would cost Google about $3.3 Billion at the current price for the speaker which is $49.
While the cost of $3.3 Billion to give away Google Home Mini speakers to every household in America is no small sum, Nowak believes Google would easily make the money back and then some, stating that Google would be likely to make five times the amount of what it would cost the company to give the speakers away for free within a five-year time frame.
Google is predicted to come out with $44 Billion in retail-search revenue through 2022, and that number could be helped if more people had access to a Google Home product which allows users to make queries about purchases and shopping. Essentially the more people that have access to something that allows them to search retail purchases the more chances Google has to make revenue from those searches. Getting speakers into people homes isn’t a guarantee that people will use them. It would likely help, though. On the other side of things, Nowak also points out that the people who acquire a Google Home Mini by means of Google giving them away may be less likely to use the speaker for shopping purposes.