New data from TrendForce (www.trendforce.com) says the global shipments of smart speakers are expected to reach 62.25 million units in 2018.
Driven by the expansion of Google Home into more regions and the growth of smart speaker market in China, the shipments would increase further by 53% year-over-year, reaching 95.25 million units in 2019. With the strongest growth momentum among all categories of consumer electronics, smart speakers have emerged as a major application of voice interactions and are fast becoming the gateway to other smart-home products as well as the vast ecosystems, according to TrendForce.
Companies including Apple, Facebook, Baidu, and Tencent have all entered the market this year, in addition to first movers. Apple, of course, makes the HomePod (pictured).
“Currently, Amazon accounts for around 70% of the U.S. market, therefore, Google has to turn to explore the overseas markets,” says TrendForce analyst Tom Tien. With outstanding AI speech recognition, Google is actively developing the voice-user interface for multiple languages, with Google Home supporting 6 languages since 2018, an improvement from 4 languages in 2017. Google Home is now available in 13 countries, up from 6 last year. For 2019, it is expected to be available in more than 18 countries and to support more than 11 languages as well, driving its 2019 global shipment to 30.96 million units, a year-over-year growth of 72%.”