Voice-controlled portable speakers - featuring a built-in battery that allows users to move them around, in contrast with other speakers designed to be mains powered and placed in a specific room - will continue to grow in popularity, as many technology trends, including voice interaction, higher-quality but lower-power codecs such as the latest LC3 Bluetooth codec, and more efficient battery technology will appeal to more consumers.
The rise of voice assistants is helping to drive the portable speaker market, as more consumers realize the need to take the smart devices to different places in the home and even outside the home, SAR Insight reports.
While Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa are the most popular assistants — found in a range of devices, including those from Sonos, Bose and Logitech — there is scope for more assistants (Apple’s Siri and Samsung’s Bixby among others) to be integrated into future devices.
“While consumer demand for voice-controlled portable speakers is expected to increase, there will still be strong demand from consumers who require devices with longer battery life and no voice assistants,” says Kian Rayment, analyst at SAR. “This will accompany a demand for devices with high ingress protection ratings to expand use case scenarios for consumers”.
SAR also predicts that there will be a need for higher power density batteries to keep up with additional functionalities such as voice control. "Battery technology continues to have a large impact on any portable device. With portable speakers there is a drive to increase battery life but with minimal change to the overall device size. The inclusion of passive radiators is one method manufactures use to both reduce power consumption and improve sound reproduction," SAR adds.
SAR Insight & Consulting’s in-depth report, ‘Portable Speakers: market growth, technology trends, forecasts and competitive analysis’, breaks the market down into different sectors and explains how the main players intend to develop their offerings, and how component suppliers are expected to benefit. Within the predictions, there has also been consideration of COVID-19, the coronavirus that disrupted the global markets in the first half of 2020.
For more information on the research, email Peter Cooney, Research Director, SAR Insight & Consulting.
www.sarinsight.com
