Echo Still Dominates…and Is Still Mostly a Speaker

Amazon is more than a retailer. Beyond selling products and developing (and then narrowing) private-label brands as retailers have for generations, Amazon is also a technology device company and an entertainment company. (And we aren’t even thinking about Amazon Web Services…) Using data from our periodic survey of US smart speaker owners, in addition to our quarterly survey of US Amazon shoppers, we want to take a look at Amazon Echo.

Since the introduction of the first Amazon Echo in 2014, Amazon has made bold moves in the connected home space. It bought Ring, Blink, and Eero, and expanded the Echo smart speaker line to more than a dozen models. Amazon has an abiding commitment to smart home technology. In many ways Amazon is responsible for the success and shortcomings in the growth of home automation overall. 

Echo remains the leading smart speaker by a considerable margin. Over two-thirds of US smart speaker owners have an Echo as their primary or only smart speaker (Chart 1). Google Home accounts for just less than one quarter of the smart speaker customer base, while Apple’s HomePod has a 7% share. Amazon clearly exploited its early start, diverse model lineup, and aggressive pricing.

To be notified when there is a new CIRP - Amazon Report (generally weekly), please subscribe below. Paid subscribers have access to all CIRP - Amazon articles.