All items tagged with smart speakers (250)
Global Smart Speaker Market Set to Reach 163 Million Units in 2021
October 30, 2020 by audioXpress Staff

Global Smart Speaker Market Set to Reach 163 Million Units in 2021

With a slightly more conservative forecast than some published reports from other market research firms, Canalys expects the global smart speaker market, including smart displays, to reach 163 million units in 2021, characterized as a growth of 21%. In 2020, Mainland China, which has the COVID-19 pandemic relatively under control, will lead, growing 16%, while the rest of the global market is expected to grow 3% as countries continue to battle the coronavirus.
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DSP Group Announces Support of TensorFlow Lite for Microcontrollers on its DBMD7 AI/ML SoC
October 22, 2020 by audioXpress Staff

DSP Group Announces Support of TensorFlow Lite for Microcontrollers on its DBMD7 AI/ML SoC

DSP Group announced TensorFlow Lite for Microcontrollers SDK support for its DBMD7 family of low-cost, high-performance, multicore AI and DSP processors. The SDK for the DBMD7 allows developers of AI and high-performance machine learning applications on edge devices to avoid latencies and ensure end-user privacy devices to cost-effectively deploy high-performance machine learning (ML) inference at the edge to avoid network latencies, minimize power consumption, ensure end-user privacy, and free up scarce network bandwidth.
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The First Smart Speaker from Apple: A Strong Design and How It Is Perceived
October 15, 2020 by Joao Martins

The First Smart Speaker from Apple: A Strong Design and How It Is Perceived

For this edition of The Audio Voice, I intended to focus a bit more on the latest developments in the fascinating world of sensors and how it impacts product development and design in all applications areas, particularly in consumer electronics, automotive, and health applications. After writing previously about Apple - the sensors on the Apple Watch and the surprising firmware updates for the AirPod Pro earbuds - I really didn't want to go back to Apple. But as always, Apple has a way of surprising us exactly when we least expected, and the company made another important audio announcement.
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Apple Unveils HomePod mini Smart Speaker to Expand Its Smart Home Ecosystem
October 13, 2020 by audioXpress Staff

Apple Unveils HomePod mini Smart Speaker to Expand Its Smart Home Ecosystem

Opening what was broadly expected to be an event focused on the iPhone 12 unveiling, Apple introduced the new HomePod mini. Unlike the original HomePod, primarily focused on the music listening experience, the HomePod mini is touted as an actual Smart Speaker. In fact, betting on leading on four fronts: to combine a great music listening experience, an intelligent assistant, and smart home capabilities, with built-in privacy and security, in a beautiful compact design. Also much more affordable, at just $99.
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Google Introduces Nest Audio Smart Speaker With Focus on Music Reproduction
October 1, 2020 by Joao Martins

Google Introduces Nest Audio Smart Speaker With Focus on Music Reproduction

Google held the company's traditional hardware announcements event. Apart from a new mandatory phone, the star of the event was the new Nest Audio smart speaker, bigger and more powerful than the Google Home that it replaces. Rumored for months, the new smart speaker reflects the hard work by a dedicated engineering team, resulting in a better overall speaker design, but also improved multi-room streaming features. Inside, there's more intelligence to support voice commands locally, and there's even a microphone "privacy" mute switch, when required.
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Amazon Reimagines Echo Smart Speaker Family for 2020
September 29, 2020 by Joao Martins

Amazon Reimagines Echo Smart Speaker Family for 2020

Amazon.com introduced its all-new line-up of Echo devices, featuring completely new designs, enhanced audio, more powerful hardware, and experiences that make Alexa voice assistant more engaging, and helpful. Most of the new Amazon products will be available at the end of October 2020, and that includes an all-new Echo (4th Gen), now with better sound and integrated smart home hub; the new Echo Dot and Echo Dot Kids Edition featuring the new spherical designs and improved audio, and Echo Show 10, the smart speaker with screen.
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Futuresource's Audio Collaborative 2020 Expands as Two-Day Live-Streamed Event
September 14, 2020 by Joao Martins

Futuresource's Audio Collaborative 2020 Expands as Two-Day Live-Streamed Event

Futuresource Consulting is putting together another edition of the company's renowned Audio Collaborative event, which for 2020 will be shifting to an all-virtual experience. With health and safety being of prime importance during the coronavirus outbreak, Futuresource must ensure all co-workers, exhibitors, thought leaders and attendees feel at ease to best experience and deliver the range of fascinating topics lined up. Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th of November, from 14:00 – 18:00 GMT, Audio Collaborative 2020 will be more global than ever.
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Global Home Audio Market Dominated by Tech Giants and Big Brands in Q2 2020
August 21, 2020 by Futuresource Consulting

Global Home Audio Market Dominated by Tech Giants and Big Brands in Q2 2020

The CE Team at Futuresource Consulting shared some key topics and trends from its latest Global Home Audio Report, revealing how home audio products have returned to strength in Q2 2020. Global home audio products posted an unexpected strong performance in Q2 2020, delivering 20% shipment growth and 10% value growth quarter-on-quarter, according to preliminary results from Futuresource Consulting’s latest quarterly tracker. APAC leads the way, with North America and Western Europe in recovery.
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Global Smart Speaker Sales Reach 30 Million Units in Q2 2020
August 12, 2020 by audioXpress Staff

Global Smart Speaker Sales Reach 30 Million Units in Q2 2020

Defying the impact of the pandemic, global sales of smart speakers in Q2 2020 rose to 30.0 million units, an increase of 6% compared to Q1, according to preliminary results from Strategy Analytics. On a year-on-year basis, worldwide shipments of smart speakers and smart displays fell by 0.4% in Q2 2020, still a very robust indicator. Amazon retained first place with a share of 21.6%, followed by Google (17.1%) and Baidu (16.7%).
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The Intelligent Microphone: The Next Generation of MEMS Microphone Technology
August 6, 2020 by Mike Klasco

The Intelligent Microphone: The Next Generation of MEMS Microphone Technology

At the end of July 2020, audioXpress ran a product release on Vesper's VM3011 intelligent digital micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) microphone. Its claim to fame is a power saving architecture that enables battery standby life that otherwise would be unattainable without the "smarts." There are another half-dozen developers working on integrating all sorts of capabilities within the MEMS mic package. This article, originally published in The Audio Voice newsletter, discusses those developments.
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