"Markets where smart speakers are booming saw the most significant year-on-year growth,” commented Guy Hammett, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. “While the US continues to be the largest smart speaker market in the world, Eastern Europe saw the strongest year-on-year growth of 705% thanks to the introduction of Yandex’s Station Mini. More impressive however is Asia Pacific’s 116% growth, which saw it grow by over 10 percentage points to reach 39% of Q4 shipments.”
Due to the continued interest in both home automation and immersive theatre, smart soundbars have also experienced a rise in popularity. Hammett states, “soundbars with smart-tech integration have experienced a 60% increase year-on-year. They still, however, take up a relatively small segment of the overall smart speaker market when compared to wireless speakers. As the standout audio product, wireless speakers achieved the largest overall revenue growth this quarter.”
Futuresource Consulting’s quarterly report also demonstrates the growth of smart display units, particularly those now adopting much larger screens. 3 million smart display units were shipped in 2018 compared to a staggering 14.5 million units in 2019. Google and Amazon both experienced a strong quarter, yet Baidu currently remains the strongest contender within the smart display market.
“The demand for larger screen sizes, improved Wi-fi technology and enhanced audio quality commands a premium cost, despite the average price of home audio devices declining once again in Q4,” explains Hammett. “Vendors will need to find ways of adopting aggressive pricing strategies and increasing giveaways to gain market share.”
The Futuresource Home Audio quarterly tracker provides an update on the worldwide home audio market for Q4 2019. It quantifies the market in volume and value, focusing on wireless speakers, soundbars and hi-fi systems.
www.futuresource-consulting.com
