Smart Speaker Installed Base to Surpass 200 Million in 2019, Grow to 500 Million in 2023 – Canalys
- Smart speaker makers will sell about 94 million devices in 2019 increasing the installed base to 207.9 million by year-end
- The U.S. will continue to be the largest global market with sales growth at 46%.
- Mainland China will show the fastest smart speaker growth worldwide of 166%, with 60 million new units sold
- Smart speaker installed base will surpass wearable band in 2019 and tablets in 2021
New data from Canalys forecasts that the worldwide smart speaker installed base will exceed 200 million in 2019 and climb to over 500 million by 2023, surpassing wearables this year and tablets in 2021. Canalys says the installed base of smart speakers sold through the end of 2018 was 114 million units and that will rise 93.9 million units in 2019 to settle at 207.9 million devices by year-end. The new smart speaker sales reflect a growth rate of 82.4%.
The U.S. Will Continue to Lead in 2019 with Asian Markets Rising Quickly
The Canalys forecast shows the U.S. rising 46% but off of an installed base about three times higher than China. However, China’s growth rate of 166% will bring it to about two-thirds of the U.S. device sales volume. Smart speaker adoption rates in South Korea and Japan are the next highest at 132% and 131% respectively, but off of much smaller user bases in the low millions. Canada, which has had smart speakers available for less than two years, is expected to grow its installed base 80% in 2019. More mature markets in the U.K. and Germany are expected to show growth more comparable to the U.S. at 47% and 49% respectively.
What we are seeing is continued global adoption of smart speakers where countries that have had the devices for several years are now showing growth under 50% while countries, where the devices have become available more recently, are rising over 100%. What is undeniable is that the popularity of smart speakers appears to be region and culture independent.
Smart Speaker Installed Base to Surpass 500 Million in 2023
Canalys also shared its smart speaker installed base device forecast for the next five years and compared that with wearable bands and tablets. The research firm expects over 500 million smart speakers to be in use by the end of 2023. The smart speaker installed base is expected to surpass wearable bands this year and tablets by the end of 2021. By 2023, there are forecasted to be about 200 million more smart speakers in use than either of those categories.
Voicebot.ai survey data from the Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report at the end of 2018 showed a slightly higher U.S. installed base of 66.4 million users and a 2018 growth rate of about 40%. If the smart speaker growth rate exceeds 40% again in 2019, device ownership will surpass 90 million in the U.S. this year.
You can read the original news post from Canalys here.
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