Defying the impact of the pandemic, global sales of smart speakers in the second quarter of 2020 rose to 30 million units, an increase of 6% compared to quarter one, according to preliminary results from Strategy Analytics.
Amazon retained first place with a share of 21.6%, followed by Google (17.1%) and Baidu (16.7%). Chinese vendors recovered from a slow first quarter, which was affected by pandemic-related issues in the Chinese market. Most US players, however, suffered from slower consumer demand in quarter two and saw sales declines.
Strategy Analytics is predicting a stronger third quarter as more economies begin to recover, and global sales are on track to reach 161 million units for the full year.
“The pandemic continues to affect sales patterns around the world. Quarter two demand in Asia-Pacific recovered from the drama of lockdown in quarter one, but North American and European sales fell slightly quarter on quarter as those economies went into reverse,” says David Watkins, director at Strategy Analytics. “We are optimistic that recovery in these regions will mirror what we have seen in China and that the underlying popularity of smart speakers will propel the market to a positive outcome for the rest of the year.”