It goes without saying that with Amazon getting a head start in the smart speaker race that it’s not surprising that they have a very sizable market share. However it seems that Google could be catching up, at least according to recent data from Canalys in which apparently Google overtook Amazon in smart speaker shipments for Q1 2018.
As you can see in the graph above, Q1 2018 saw for the first time ever Google surpassing Amazon in terms of smart speaker shipments, where the company managed to ship 3.2 million smart speakers versus Amazon’s 2.5 million devices. However this is only for Q1 2018 and it is possible that Amazon could eventually get their lead back.
Also Amazon is still very much the king in the smart speaker market, but like we said if Google can keep up their lead, it is possible that the gap will start to close between both companies. For the most part both companies have similar offerings, where there is a cheaper and smaller version of the smart speakers aimed at users who don’t really need to play music but want the smart digital assistants.
Then there are also the “regular” versions, although in Amazon’s case they are also offering a model with a built-in display, while Google has a model aimed more at audio enthusiasts. For those wondering about Apple’s HomePod, last we heard the company had managed to ship 600,000 units in Q1 2018 which only accounts for a fraction of the market. There are claims that Apple might launch a cheaper version of the HomePod but that remains to be seen.
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