Amazon Echo and Google Home European Smart Speaker Sales Approach 6.5 Million Units in 2017
Strategy Analytics has completed its analysis of global and European smart speaker sales for 2017 and data show that nearly 6.5 million units were sold in the U.K., Germany and France in 2017. Both Amazon Echo and Google Home smart speakers were on sale in 2017 in the U.K. and Germany while French shoppers could only purchase Google Home. The U.K. was the largest market for smart speakers with 3.94 million smart speakers sold.
Germany was the second largest market at with two million units sold and France came in with 500,000 units. However, French sales represent only five months of smart speaker availability as Google Home didn’t start selling in the country until August. Google Home started selling in Germany at the same time whereas the device became available in the U.K. in April.
Amazon Echo Leads European Smart Speaker Sales Share
Amazon Echo led European smart speaker sales market share by a factor of two-to-one. However, it is impressive that Google Home accounted for one-third of European smart speaker sales given that it had the equivalent of only a half-year of sales opportunity.
Strategy Analytics global smart speaker sales analysis shows Google with a 35.7% Q4 share so it slightly underperformed in Europe in the full year 2017 compared to other geographies. Almost all of this is likely accounted for in the timing of Google Home product releases. While Google Home trailed Amazon Echo to market by several months in the U.K. and Germany, it was first to market in Australia, Canada, and France. Amazon Echo didn’t launch in Canada until November 2017, over four months after Google Home. And, Amazon Echo didn’t become available in Australia until 2018 and still isn’t available in France so Google had access to those markets in 2017 without competition.
With that said, Google Home market share in Europe is nearly identical to its global average for Q4 according to the Strategy Analytics analysis. By contrast, Amazon Echo has much higher share in Europe than globally at 67% to 51.8%. The difference? In this case it is less about timing than lack of competitors. Smart speaker sales from manufacturers other than Amazon and Google captured 12.5% of global Q4 market share in 2017 but were not present or inconsequential in Europe. The introduction of new smart speakers into Europe in 2018 will surely impact both Amazon and Google market share going forward.
Strategy Analytics Reports Explosive Smart Speaker Growth in Q4, 30 Million Units in 2017
