Amazon’s Echo may be the smart speaker market’s top dog, but Google Home is nipping at its tail. Lifetime sales of Google’s AI-powered speakers — which include the Google Home, Home Mini, Home Max — topped six million this holiday, according to the search giant.
“All told, Google Home usage increased 9X this holiday season over last year’s,” Google wrote in a blog post. “And in fact, we sold more than one […] device every second since Google Home Mini started shipping in October.”
Google’s accomplishments don’t stop there. It also shipped tens of millions of “Google devices for the home” in 2017, a category that comprises speakers, appliances, and peripherals with the Google Assistant, Google’s voice assistant, built in. And it’s enabled the Assistant support on more than 400 million devices, including Apple’s iPhone and Android smartphones and tablets running Android Lollipop and newer.
More recently, it introduced a software development kit for hardware manufacturers in Japan, the UK, and Germany.
“As we’ve added more features — like Voice Match, Broadcast and Hands-Free Calling — the Google Assistant has become even more helpful,” said Google. “Your Assistant now gives you the power to voice control more than 1,500 compatible smart home devices from over 225 brands. With all these choices, you’ve connected millions of new smart home devices to Google Home every month.”
The announcements come ahead of the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show next week, where Google’s expected to announce new Assistant features and OEM partnerships.
It’s good news for the Google Home, which competes in an increasingly crowded field. Unit sales of Amazon Echo, Google Home, and lesser-known smart speakers are expected to top 56.3 million worldwide, according to consumer research firm Canalys, and 38.4 million in the U.S. alone.
Source: Google
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