Amazon Dominates U.S. Smart Speaker Market, And The Competition Is Not Even Close

Amazon is the dominant player in the growing U.S. smart speaker market. A new report claims that Amazon will continue to be the dominant brand in the smart speaker market through 2021 with 70% of the total market in the States. The report shows that in 2020 69.7% of U.S. smart speaker users will use an Amazon Echo device, which is down a bit from the 2019 total of 72.9% of the market.

Google is in a distant second place with its smart speakers owning 31.7% of the market. The other brands in the segment claim a combined 18.4%. That other segment includes the Apple HomePod, Harmon Kardon Invoke, and Sonos One devices. The percentages add up to greater than 100% of the market because some households have more than one brand of speakers in them.

Part of the lead Amazon enjoys in the smart speaker segment is thanks to the fact that it was first to launch a smart speaker with an integrated voice assistant in 2014. Amazon has also worked to open Alexa to outside development and to promote compatibility with thousands of Amazon and third-party smart home devices.

One downside for Amazon Echo devices is that they support fewer languages and aren’t as popular in some countries. The report on the smart speaker market, compiled by emarketer, notes that Apple and Google were expected to make more inroads into the segment, but Amazon has remained dominant. Amazon has been aggressive with pricing devices affordably and building out Alexa skills to maintain the smart speaker's appeal. The smart speaker segment is expected to continue growing, but that growth is expected to slow in the coming years. A report on the smart speaker industry published in November 2019 came to similar conclusions with Amazon leading the market.