The number of smart speakers in US households has increased by 78% year-over-year, from 66.7 million in December 2017 to 118.5m in December 2018.
That’s according to the Smart Audio Report, Winter 2018, which is based on a survey conducted by NPR and Edison Research after the December 2018 holidays.
The average smart speaker household now features 2.3 smart speakers, up from an average of 1.7 devices per household at this time last year.
The new findings also show that among US adults over the age of 18 – 53 million people – or 21% of the population – now own at least one smart speaker.
According to Census Bureau data there were 121.9m US households in September 2017, which means that there are nearly the same number of active smart speakers as there are households in the country.
However, a Nielsen study found last year that only 24% of US households in Q2 2018 owned a smart speaker, and that 4 out of 10 of these households owned more than one.
The new Smart Audio Report also states that there were 14m new smart speaker owners in 2018 alone, and that 8% of people in the US either bought or received a smart speaker over the holiday season.
It also shows that 30% of respondents now own three or more smart speakers, compared with 17% the year before.
Last month Deloitte predicted that the global industry for smart speakers, which it defines as ‘internet-connected speakers with integrated digital voice assistant’, will be worth $7 billion in 2019.
In February last year, MBW published a blog post by Deviate Digital CEO Sammy Andrews about how Apple‘s Homepod, Amazon‘s Echo and voice recognition are changing the music industry as we know it.
Music Business Worldwide
