Amazon Alexa Smart Speaker Market Share Dips Below 70% In U.S., Google Rises to 25%
A new study from Edison Research and NPR reports that Amazon Echo maintains almost a three-to-one consumer market share advantage over Google Home in the U.S., but the gap narrowed considerably in 2017 to settle at 69% to 25%. This represents the first time Amazon has dropped below 70% market share. The data was collected during a telephone survey of 1,010 adults the last week of December after the 2017 holiday season concluded.
The market share data was derived from an email interview with the research principle and the report’s representation that 16% of survey participants owned a smart speaker of any type, 11% indicated Amazon Echo ownership and 4% for Google Home.
Image Credit: Edison Research / NPR
Amazon Echo Juggernaut Has Real Competition from Google Home
Amazon Echo was the only smart speaker for nearly two years. That meant the company’s 100% market share was certain to fall as consumers were introduced to new choices. The biggest challenger to emerge is Google Home which snapped up 6.7% market share globally in 2016 after being on the market for less than two months. Google, largely driven by the introduction of the low-priced Google Home Mini, made even bigger gains in 2017 ending the year with U.S. market share of 25%. That left Amazon Echo with 69% share and other manufacturers with just over 6%.
A hat tip goes to eMarketer which in May of 2017 estimated that Amazon would end the year with 70.6% share, with Google accounting for 23.8% and other manufacturers 6.7%. That is pretty well aligned with the Edison survey data. The conclusion here is that Google over-performed slightly. This was likely driven by fact that Google was selling more than one Google Home per second in the fourth quarter and shipped over 7.6 million units was likely the difference.
Amazon Echo Maintains Large Market Share Lead in U.S. Smart Speaker User Base
New Voicebot Report Says Nearly 20% of U.S. Adults Have Smart Speakers
