Amazon has a “dominant share” of the U.S. market for smart speakers, accounting for 69% of devices sold over the past five years, according to a new report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).
The research shows Google Home, Apple HomePod and Facebook Portal growing their unit sales, to varying degrees, but not enough to chip away meaningfully at Amazon Echo’s lead in the installed base (cumulative units sold).
CIRP estimates that Google has 25% of the installed base, Apple has 5%, and Facebook has 1%, compared to Amazon’s 69%, as of June 2021.
Google Home launched in late 2016 and had 31% of the U.S. installed base by the end of 2017, but has seen its share slip since then.
Amazon was first to market with its Echo smart speakers, launching them in 2014 with its Alexa voice assistant. The company appears to be benefitting in multiple ways from its position.
“One critical goal for everyone in the industry is to get as many units into as many homes as possible,” said Mike Levin, CIRP partner and co-founder, in a statement. “With multiple devices in a single home, a smart speaker platform can claim that literal real estate as theirs, as barriers to switching get very high.”
He added, “Amazon leads the way with customers with multiple devices. We estimate over 20 million US households have more than one Echo, while about 8 million US households have multiple Google Home units.”
CIRP estimates that the total U.S. installed base for smart speakers grew from 20 million units in June 2017 to 126 million units in June 2021.
