Amazon is dominating the
nascent market for voice-controlled speakers, research firm
eMarketer said on Monday.
The e-commerce giant's Amazon Echo and Echo Dot devices will
claim a 70.6 percent share of the US market this year, the
study found. The speakers feature Alexa, Amazon's
voice-controlled aide, which users can tell to play music, order
an Uber or turn on the house lights.
That puts it far ahead of Alphabet Inc's Google
Home, a similar gadget that has a 23.8 percent share, and less
successful offerings from other tech companies.
The number of active US users will more than double for
the devices this year, to 35.6 million, eMarketer said.
Read also: Amazon's Self-driving vehicles
The report underscores Amazon's progress in making Alexa and
its speech-recognition technology an integral part of customers'
lives. More users means more data that can improve Alexa's
understanding and could make it a top platform for voice, like
Windows is for desktop.
Amazon does not disclose Echo sales figures but has said it
had trouble keeping the product in stock. Device sales and extra
revenue from shoppers placing orders via Alexa could generate
$10 billion for Amazon by 2020, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark
Mahaney said in a recent note. And that does not include
potential revenue from others using Alexa as a platform.
Google's share is expected to grow, though. Tests by
analysts have shown the technology underpinning the Google Home
to match or be superior to competitors. A survey by Mahaney
found the device's brand awareness in the United States already
equaled 80 percent of Alexa's, despite being on the market for
fewer months.
The statistics from eMarketer focused on speakers and left
out other virtual assistants: notably, Apple Inc's Siri
and Microsoft Corp's Cortana. More than 60 million in
the United States will use virtual assistants at least once
monthly in 2017, the report said. That's over a quarter of US smartphone users.