Parks Associates’ research estimates U.S. households will buy more than 64 million smart speakers with voice assistants in 2022, part of the smart home trend driving widespread adoption of voice control.
Strategies for Integrating Voice in the Smart Home finds adoption of these devices increased by 800% from 2016 to 2018, reaching nearly one-third of U.S. broadband households by the end of 2018.
“Voice is emerging as a key complement to smart home device adoption and ownership, as it provides a simple method of interaction and creates opportunities for a centralized user interface and interoperability among multiple devices,” said Dina Abdelrazik, research analyst, Parks Associates. “The next step will be integration of voice among multiple device categories, which will help to alleviate smart home fragmentation.”
Use of voice in conjunction with smart home devices is increasing. The report finds 21% of smart home owners have used voice to turn their devices on/off, while 18% have used voice to check a device’s status. With voice popularity and use cases expanding, device makers and service providers are looking to capitalize on the current market opportunity by integrating a voice experience with their current offerings. The first decision a company must make before doing so is to decide whether to create its own proprietary solution or to integrate with a readily available solution, according to Parks Associates.
“Major tech giants have entered the voice-first market providing companies with the opportunity to leverage their voice-based solutions, with Amazon and Google leading the market,” Abdelrazik said. “They have made it easier for companies to enable voice-based solutions while creating competition for consumer mindshare, with Apple, Samsung, and Harman Kardon promoting their own solutions in an increasingly crowded market. This diversity gives companies more choices when considering partnerships or whether to develop their own proprietary in-house solution.”