With more than 53 million smart speaker owners in the U.S., the updated Smart Audio Report reveals how those users are settling in with their devices and the factors the industry will have to solve for in order to grow further. The survey also finds security concerns do not inhibit regular use of installed smart speaker devices, but are limiting further adoption.
“We continue to see those that have voice assistant devices love them, using them every day to get the news, listen to podcasts, live stream radio stations and more,” says Joel Sucherman, NPR Vice President, New Platform Partnerships. “The latest data suggest we’ve moved into a maturation phase in this space, in which earning and maintaining the trust of potential smart speaker buyers, while also demonstrating new functionality, may be a key to continuing dynamic growth.”
"We are starting to see more pragmatic usage of these devices," adds Tom Webster, SVP of Edison Research. "The longer people have these devices, the less experimentation they do with them — but the more ingrained into everyday life these devices become."
Key findings from the Spring 2019 Smart Audio Report include:
- 69% of smart speaker owners use their device daily, and households with children are even more likely to use them daily
- Smart speaker owners who have owned the device for 2+ years use an average seven (7) skills per week, compared to an average 12 skills per week among those who have owned the device for less than three (3) months
- 66% of those who own a smart speaker with a screen say the screen has made it easier to discover new content, and the same number say having a screen makes the smart speaker 'easier to use'
- 69% of smart speaker owners use their device daily, despite security and privacy concerns
- 63% of people who are interested in owning a smart speaker have not acquired one specifically because they are concerned hackers could use the device to gain access to their home or personal information, and 55% haven’t out of concern that the device is always listening
- 55% are bothered that smart speakers are always listening
Security remains a concern around these devices among current users as well. Almost 60% of smart speaker owners worry about hackers, and more than half indicated it bothers them that their smart speaker is always listening. While almost half of smart speaker owners are planning to acquire another device, the Report also finds a slowing interest among non-owners in acquiring their first smart speaker.
The Smart Audio Report from NPR and Edison Research, which debuted in June 2017, is a recurring study on trends in Smart Speaker ownership and voice assistant user behavior. A full archive of research from the Report is available at www.npr.org/smartaudio. NPR was the featured Flash Briefing provider on Amazon Alexa devices at launch in 2014, and also on Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, Samsung Bixby and Apple Siri devices.
The Smart Audio Report Spring 2019 is based upon a national online survey of 1,641 Americans ages 18+, 812 who indicated that they owned at least one Smart Speaker and 829 who indicated they did not own a smart speaker. The device owner data was weighted to nationally representative figures on Smart Speaker users from The Infinite Dial 2019 from Edison Research and Triton Digital.
www.npr.org | www.edisonresearch.com
