Smart speaker adoption nearly doubled over the last year

[Greg S]

In brief: Numerous market reports are showing that smart speaker adoption rapidly increased throughout 2018. Amazon leads the competition with Google having barely half as many devices deployed. Apple's HomePod is completely irrelevant to everyone except die hard Apple fans.

Whether there is a real need for smart speakers or not, consumers are buying them. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of US residents owning smart speakers has increased from 21.5 percent all the way up to 41 percent.

As expected, Amazon leads the market with its lineup of Alexa-enabled devices. The Google Home series only accounts for 29 percent of smart speakers whereas Amazon holds a 66 percent market share. Apple's HomePod has earned a meager 5 percent share.

There are now more than 100 million Alexa devices in use throughout the United States. Third-party skills for the platform grew more than 150 percent over the last year. In just two years time, more than 60,000 skills have been added.

Source: RBC Capital Markets

Google has an install base of approximately 43 million Home devices in the US and another 9 million internationally. Market share for Google Home series speakers increased from 8 percent in 2017 to 23 percent in 2018. Average households with smart speakers own 1.7 devices.

Over the next three years, Amazon is expected to outpace Google in terms of revenue generated through smart speakers. In 2021, Amazon is estimated to bring in up to $19 billion. Google will only generate an estimated $8.2 billion.

However, Amazon's strategy relies on consumers using Alexa to buy items and use subscription services. Google is more focused on selling accessory hardware such as Nest thermostats, Chromecasts, and other smart home gear, none of which counts as revenue generated through Google Assistant on speakers.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/78036-smart-speaker-adoption-nearly-doubled-over-last-year.html

 

[trparky]

I will never let one of these devices into my home.

 

[psycros]

Hold up. "Voice-activated device" can be a lot of things other than a smart speaker. You can install Alexa on practically anything now, and Google's assistant is preinstalled on virtually everything Android. This stinks of opinion steering and an attempt to build the wave.

 

[p51d007]

Nope, will NEVER allow one of these in my house.
Yeah yeah yeah, I have a smartphone, but, when I go to bed, it turns OFF (or so they say it does LOL)
And yes, the camera/mic on my laptop are disabled & yes, I do have a tin-foil hat

 

[toooooot]

They look nice, I want one instead of my heavy mordaunt short speakers. But the sound Small sound. The sound of a small speaker is unbearable to me. I mean yea there are pretty big smart speakers, if you need your speaker that gotta be smart, at least go for one of a reasonable size and sound quality. But then of course, 95% of people wouldn't value the difference between full size pro speakers versus 10 dollar earbuds.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I will never let one of these devices into my home.

Nope, will NEVER allow one of these in my house.

I will never have voice activated anything. That opens a huge door to which you probably will be victimized. Especially when the device doesn't filter out frequencies outside the audible range.

 

[captaincranky]

Gee, another trend I'm missing out on. Oh woe is me. Time is passing me by. (Although I think it's definitely for the best).

 

[cliffordcooley]

@captaincranky - What would everyone have thought? If when you were young. You stood around speaking to your devices. lol

 

[captaincranky]

@captaincranky - What would everyone have thought? If when you were young. You stood around speaking to your devices. lol

Today's "device" is a sanitized version of the slang term "jawn".
jawn
/jôn/
noun
DIALECT•US

1. (chiefly in eastern Pennsylvania) used to refer to a thing, place, person, or event that one need not or cannot give a specific name to.
   "these jawns are very inexpensive"

A "device" is very oftentimes something you don't want, need, or like, but has been forced on you by marketing and peer pressure. A "device" is thus, "The 'jawn', of the dawn of the computer age".

In answer to your question, the only actual "device" I recall talking to with any frequency, was my 1948 Harley-Davidson. After about the 50th kick, while gasping desperately for air, I would utter something like, ""start you m****r f*****g piece of sh!t.

And NO, electric start didn't happen until many years later. Those old gems were, "kick me, or walk").

The running joke was, "is that a one kick Harley", to which you would reply, "yeah, one kick after another".....

 

[tipstir]

I have to disagree with a lot of you about smart devices. Having Google Home Mini here a for a few weeks has been pretty interesting. No matter what they tell you it's still a Work-in-progress device. Not fully ready to do what it could do. The one from Apple isn't any better. I don't have Amazon one I just don't see the need for it.
I have now 12 Smart WiFi Bulbs controlled by Google Assistant. It does work, it can play music and be your pal as well. More of a side kick. It does need the internet if it doesn't have the internet it's dead in the water. Hey Google Good morning..
Hey Google Good night.. I wish I could be apart of the team to have it ready for prime-time it's still not there yet and it might not be there for 2020 But 2018 going into 2019 it can explore and hopefully have made improvements over the code. I got mine for free but the lights are not cheap although the prices have come down. I am always into computer gear and making the computer talk back to me and talk to it. Today I finally have something that can do that. Years ago when RadioShack Tandy VoicBox was the only thing you could use with a CB mic and now look what you can have..

 

[senketsu]

"Whether there is a real need for smart speakers or not, consumers are buying them"
here is a thought, since they use the word 'smart', the average IQ is about 100. That means 50% of the population has an IQ that is less, some way less, and the article states "the number of US residents owning smart speakers has increased ...… all the way up to 41 percent." Maybe it will plateau at 50%???

 

[cliffordcooley]

I have to disagree with a lot of you about smart devices.

The smart device really doesn't have to have a microphone to be classified as a smart device though.

 

[captaincranky]

I have to disagree with a lot of you about smart devices. Having Google Home Mini here a for a few weeks has been pretty interesting. No matter what they tell you it's still a Work-in-progress device. Not fully ready to do what it could do. The one from Apple isn't any better. I don't have Amazon one I just don't see the need for it.
I have now 12 Smart WiFi Bulbs controlled by Google Assistant. It does work, it can play music and be your pal as well. More of a side kick. It does need the internet if it doesn't have the internet it's dead in the water. Hey Google Good morning..
Hey Google Good night.. I wish I could be apart of the team to have it ready for prime-time it's still not there yet and it might not be there for 2020 But 2018 going into 2019 it can explore and hopefully have made improvements over the code. I got mine for free but the lights are not cheap although the prices have come down. I am always into computer gear and making the computer talk back to me and talk to it. Today I finally have something that can do that. Years ago when RadioShack Tandy VoicBox was the only thing you could use with a CB mic and now look what you can have..

-It kinda sounds like you could use a cat or two. Mine are good company, and they don't invade your privacy.

Granted I live in a small house, but with a dimmer in every room, and an untethered remote dimmer in the TV room. I somehow squeak by with lighting exactly for my mood and situation.

When Alexa starts being able to recognize your moods and light accordinly, it's time to flush the damned thing down the toilet. (Which in my house, isn't internet connected either).

I keep posting this picture, and people keep not understanding its relevance to modern gadgetry. Oh well, try, try again:

 

[cliffordcooley]

-It kinda sounds like you could use a cat or two. Mine are good company, and they don't invade your privacy.

Depends on if you want something out of the refrigerator.

 

[psycros]

-It kinda sounds like you could use a cat or two. Mine are good company, and they don't invade your privacy.

Granted I live in a small house, but with a dimmer in every room, and an untethered remote dimmer in the TV room. I somehow squeak by with lighting exactly for my mood and situation.

When Alexa starts being able to recognize your moods and light accordinly, it's time to flush the damned thing down the toilet. (Which in my house, isn't internet connected either).

I keep posting this picture, and people keep not understanding its relevance to modern gadgetry. Oh well, try, try again:

Using the lure of blinkenlites to get us to do what they want? That's my best guess.

And if you have cats that respect your privacy, they are mutants and should be closely watched.

 

[captaincranky]

Depends on if you want something out of the refrigerator.

I learned the hard way, a long, long, long time ago, It's really better to just get it your self, then to be disappointed then someone you expect to do it for you, won't

 

[cliffordcooley]

I was talking about the cats when you want to eat in privacy. It takes some cruelty to animals to teach them otherwise.

 

[captaincranky]

I was talking about the cats when you want to eat in privacy. It takes some cruelty to animals to teach them otherwise.

You always somehow send me off on atopical rants. If you want an animal that bothers you at the table, buy a dog.None of the cats I've owned, (save for one), have ever showed much interest in human food..
The Maine Coon male I have now, (trust me, these cats are born with a glutton gene (*)), insists on "tasting my food", before I eat it. It's oddly flattering, since I know royalty in Medieval times had "food tasters", who would eat before the king, to check for poison. He comes over, begs for a few crumbs, samples them, and walks away, leaving me in peace to finish my meal.

That cats like milk is likewise, an old wives tale. They are severely lactose intolerant, as is every other mammal on the planet, save for man. Long story short, it's nature's way of force weaning them. They can digest lactose when young, but lose the ability when it's time for mom to get them off her chest, so to speak.

(*) Maine coon is a cold weather adaptation of the common house cat. Tons of calories would be needed in their native Maine. Hence they've developed a appetite, (genetically, I suspect), that forces them to eat constantly, even when removed to more temperate environments

 

[cliffordcooley]

You always somehow send me off on atopical rants. If you want an animal that bothers you at the table, buy a dog.

No need in bringing in a dog. You mentioned getting a cat because they don't invade on privacy. I'm saying that is not always true. You even just admitted as much.

 

[captaincranky]

No need in bringing in a dog. You mentioned getting a cat because they don't invade on privacy. I'm saying that is not always true. You even just admitted as much.

Oh Cliff, a cat can't even gossip to the neighbors about you, let alone upload all your browsing habits and personal information to Google, who will then sell your information to the highest bidder.

It seems you're having one of your "looking for any reason to start an argument spells".

In that spirit let's bring dogs into this. A dog is a subspecies of the wolf, Canis lupis familiaris .
Wolves are pack hunters, they hunt together, kill together, then share the spoils together.

So, when you sit down at the table for a meal, the dog instinctively thinks he should share in the bounty.

Only one species of Felidae, Pantera leo, hunts in a group, all other are solitary hunters.

I've had a half dozen cats in the past 20 years, and none of them had any affinity for human food. In fact, many common human food items are poisonous to cats, grapes for example.

In fact, a diet of only table food, would most likely cause a cat to go blind in old age, due to the fact it doesn't contain enough of the amino acid taurine. Taurine comes from meat, cats are carnivores, erstwhile humans are omnivores.. It's illegal to sell cat food containing below a certain percent of taurine, for that very reason.

Another human is far more invasive than any house cat, and as for "Alexa", sign up for the sh!t, and you might as well have one of Orwell's "telescreens". in every room.

 

[captaincranky]

Using the lure of blinkenlites to get us to do what they want? That's my best guess.

Well, there's a certain aspect of the old man trying to hypnotize the young boy with the bauble. I sort of envision the old man saying, "and when you awake, you will no longer simply want one of these, but obtaining one will be an overriding force in your life. Marketing strategists have but one goal, to turn innate human greed inward toward itself, and in the process changing a mere interest of having something ("want"), into an unquenchable need for it.

Every conceivable aspect of propaganda is employed during this process. Don't believe me? Then check out these Wiki pages on "propaganda:, and see if you can identify all the techniques being used on you, each and every day of your life. It's really quite sobering.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques

And if you have cats that respect your privacy, they are mutants and should be closely watched.

Dude, they sleep 16+ hours a day and can't use a smart phone, how invasive can they possibly be, mutant or otherwise?

 

[cliffordcooley]

It seems you're having one of your "looking for any reason to start an argument spells".

That's what you were doing when you brought up cats. Here you are once again accusing me of the very thing you are doing. Damn I wish you could see yourself doing this.

 

[captaincranky]

That's what you were doing when you brought up cats. Here you are once again accusing me of the very thing you are doing. Damn I wish you could see yourself doing this.

- No XCliff, I didn't bring cats up to you originally. I brought therm up with Tipster.

If you need one of these invasive, privacy and information stealing, "smart speakers", because it answers your "beckon call" with a woman's, soft voice, then you probably do need a cat or two.

Perhaps start listening to music with female front persons. Which is great because when you get tired of them nagging about their problems, you just WALK over, and hit "stop" on the (anachronistic) CD player..

If you need "smart light bulbs", you're undeniably a gadget junkie.

As for this post

That's what you were doing when you brought up cats. Here you are once again accusing me of the very thing you are doing. Damn I wish you could see yourself doing this.

It's a bunch of crap which amounts to little more than the juvenile, "me too, I know you are".

If you didn't like my reference to cats to another member, you could have just stayed out of it.

My comment was directed at Tipster, not you. But now it is. Go find yourself a nice "emotional support animal" to keep you company, and ask your doctor for some kind of benzodiazipine.

 

[cliffordcooley]

- No XCliff, I didn't bring cats up to you originally. I brought therm up with Tipster.

If I was actually trolling you I caught a big one. Look at the length of your post. I originally came in jokingly and you spun it off into something else. I get it that is what you do here at Techspot. I've grown to accept it. That is why my comments have all been short, hoping you would let it go at some point. But no I'm still waiting for your comments telling me I just don't know when to close my trap. Seriously you are the one running off at the mouth. Goodgye cranky see you in the next thread attacking someone else if not me.

 

[captaincranky]

If I was actually trolling you I caught a big one.

If you openly admit to "trolling another member", you most likely deserve what you get.

Psychros was goading me on about the cat comments, and I did give a short answer.

I just get the biggest kick out of showing you all that you don't know. I figure you'\re still cherishing the fantasy that you're, "Techspot's Guardian Fighter", and approach you accordingly.

I'm retired, I go to bed late in the morning, and I have plenty of time to do just that.

A favorite legal tactic is when an opposing law firm asks for information and records, is to bury them in it. And that's what I do with you. You're welcome..