INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
No surprise that smart speaker sales are on the rise
That certainly comports with recent numbers from NPD
The latest report from Canalys, however, pulls the camera back a bit to give a better picture of the global market
Seems that while smart speaker sales continue to be hot here in the States, they&re positively on fire in China
Global shipments increased by 187 percent year-over-year for a total of 16.8 million units
China accounted for 52-percent of the total growth worldwide, with Alibaba and Xiaomi accounting for 17.7 and 12.2 percent, respectively
The growth is large, in part, due to the fact that the category effectively didn''t exists a year ago
Canalys& Hattie He notes that a confluence of different elements have potentially put the country on track overtake the United States
Alibaba and Xiaomi have both relied on aggressive price cuts to create demand,& He adds
&Both companies have the financial backing to spend on marketing and hardware subsidies in a bid to quickly build their user bases
Although the real level of user demand for speaker products is currently unproven, China is on its way to overtake the US in the near term
The challenge remains for local vendors to increase user stickiness and generate revenue from the growing installed base of smart speaker
users.
Also interesting is the fact that Google has maintained its top spot ahead of Amazon, with explosive growth year over year
Google up 449 percent to Amazon -14 — putting the two companies in first and second place, respectively
Of course, Amazon got a significant headset in the market, so Google has some ground to make up
Apple, meanwhile, failed to crack the top four
