Amazon Alexa Has 82 Percent Smart Speaker Market Share
Survey data from Edison Research found that Amazon Alexa-enabled devices have 82% market share compared to just 18% for Google Home. eMarketer forecasted 2017 Amazon Echo market share to be about 71% with Google Home claiming 24% by year end with the remainder going to Apple HomePod, Harman Kardon Invoke and other devices.
The Amazon Echo was the first smart speaker device and was alone in the market for two years before Google Home was introduced in November 2016. That meant in October 2016, Echo had 100% market share and Strategy Analytics data showed Google growing to 7% market share by the end of 2016. As more devices have been purchased in 2017, Google Home market share has climbed to 18% according to Edison data. You can imagine this settling into 24% for Google and 71% for Amazon at year end as eMarketer predicts. Granted, even though Google Home is eating into Echo smart speaker market share, Amazon appears to be continuing to outsell its rival by a significant margin.
8 Percent Own Both Amazon Echo and Google Home
Another interesting finding from the Edison survey is that 8% of smart speaker owners have both Amazon Echo and Google Home. Voicelabs predicted from its own survey data in December 2016 that only about 11% of households will adopt smart speaker devices from more than one company. You can imagine that 8% today creeping up to 11% at some point as the devices add differentiation that provides different utility for different members of a household.
Forty-three percent of Google Home owners also own Amazon Echo devices while only 10% of Echo owners have a Google Home. This makes sense for a couple of reasons. First, many people who wanted a device in 2015 or early 2016 only had the choice of Amazon Echo. They may have preferred a Google device but it wasn’t available. When Google Home was launched they signed up for purchase even though they already had an Echo. Second, Amazon has the sub-$50 Echo Dot as one offering whereas Google only has a $129 version of Home. This low price point makes it easy for Google Home households to also acquire an Echo Dot if they are inclined. The reverse scenario is a significantly more expensive proposition.
How Important is First Mover Advantage for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant? Very
