Amazon’s share of the global smart speaker market dropped below 50% in the first quarter of 2018.
Strategy Analytics calculates there were 9.2 million units shipped in Q1 2018, but while Amazon shipped an impressive 4 million smart speakers, its global market share has nearly halved compared to the same period in 2017.
Google and Alibaba consolidated their number two and three rankings while Apple became the fourth largest smart speaker brand worldwide following the launch of the HomePod in February 2018.
David Mercer, Vice President at Strategy Analytics said, “Further strong growth in smart speaker sales confirms our view that this new market is far more than just a flash in the pan. Today’s smart speakers are by no means the finished article but they have captured the consumer imagination and we will see rapid evolution in design, functionality and associated use cases over the coming years. We are clearly heading towards to a time in the not too distant future when voice becomes a standard mode of technology interaction alongside established approaches like keyboard, mouse and touchscreen.”
Strategy Analytics’ latest smart speaker report, Global Smart Speaker Vendor & OS Shipment and Installed Base Market Share by Region: Q1 2018 provides detailed quarterly metrics for 20 smart speaker vendors and 12 voice operating systems.
Global Smart Speaker Market by Vendor: Q1 2018 (Shipments in Millions of Units)
| Vendor | Q1 '18 Shipments | Q1 '18 Market Share | Q1 '17 Shipments | Q1 '17 Market Share | Growth Y/Y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | 4 | 0.436 | 2 | 0.818 | 1.02 |
| 2.4 | 0.265 | 0.3 | 0.124 | 7.09 | |
| Alibaba | 0.7 | 0.076 | 0 | 0 | ~ |
| Apple | 0.6 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | ~ |
| Xiaomi | 0.2 | 0.024 | 0 | 0 | ~ |
| Others | 1.3 | 0.139 | 0.1 | 0.058 | 8.06 |
| Totals | 9.2 | 1 | 2.4 | 1 | 2.78 |
Source: Strategy Analytics
