Google Home Hub is the Most Popular Smart Display in Australia – Capturing Over 40% Market Share in Just Two Months

Google Home Hub was launched in late October 2018 and Australia was among the first countries with availability. The timing and value proposition must have been good because, after just 10 weeks, Google Home Hub commanded 41.5% of the smart display installed base in Australia even though it was the last device to arrive in the market. Amazon Echo Show and Spot combined accounted for just 13.2% market share, slightly behind its 14.2% share of all smart speakers. This is despite the fact that the Spot was available in Australia five months earlier and the Show beat Home Hub to market by about a month.

Smart displays are like smart speakers but they also include a screen which enables them to incorporate images, text, and video into voice interactive experiences. The data comes from the 2019 Australia Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report which was developed through a collaboration between Voicebot.ai and FIRST, a leading Australia-based digital agency. You can download the full report complete with 38 charts and over 30 pages of analysis by clicking the button below.

It is important to note that Google Assistant powers most of the “Other” category of smart displays as well. When you combine those devices with Google Home Hub, Google Assistant commands about 68% of the total smart display installed base. Matt Ware, head of operations, FIRST said today:

“Australians love Google. They have an almost 95% market share of the search engine category here and this reach would be even larger once Android, Maps and other owned properties are factored in. Them being first to market with a Smart Speaker offering combined with their dominant brand recognition is a potent combination that has driven their high rate of digital assistant adoption.”

Australian Smart Display Adoption Rate Higher Than U.S.

Australians vaulted past the U.S. in 2018 to notch a 29% smart speaker adoption rate compared to just 26% in the U.S. When it comes to smart displays the difference is even larger. In Australia, 22.2% of all smart speaker owners have a smart display compared to just 13.2% of U.S. device owners. That means over one million Australians have access to a smart display today.

Smart display functionality won’t long be limited to standalone devices. Increasingly, the voice-plus-visual experience will also be offered on smart TVs. Samsung demonstrates this today when asking Bixby about the weather and Alexa Presentation Language (APL) enables you to design to display images on Fire TV. However, smart displays are purpose-built devices designed to enhance the voice interactive experience and not an add-on for an appliance that primarily serves another function. As a result, smart displays are already proving popular in kitchens, bedrooms, and wherever a user wants access to smart home devices.

The takeaway from these findings in Australia is that voice-first devices aren’t necessarily restricted to voice-only interactions. In Australia, voice app publishers have over a million reasons to augment their voice experiences with visual elements to provide more value to smart display users.

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Australia Leaps Past U.S. in Smart Speaker Adoption, Google Home Establishes Dominant Market Share

U.S. Smart Display User Base Grew 558% in 2018 and More Than Doubled in Second Half of the Year, Amazon Holds Two-thirds Market Share