7.53 lakh units of smart speakers shipped in India in 2018, Amazon remains leader

According to a new report IDC, About 7.53 lakh units of smart speakers were shipped in India in 2018 with Amazon remains the leader with a 59 percent market share in 2018.

However, Google is also making its mark in the Indian smart speaker market after its launch in 2018Q2 and is placed second with 39 percent unit share for the year.

Google Home Mini outsold all other smart speaker models, emerging as a top seller. However, the Echo Dot with its second and third generation models was the most dominant series with four out of ten devices sold in the country.

Jaipal Singh, Associate Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India said, "Though the smart speaker is a relatively young product in India, the integration of voice assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant in smart devices is gaining immense popularity in the country. The main driver of the early adoption so far is the novelty factor around this technology. However, it is certainly driving the shift in consumer behavior and accelerating the adoption of voice interfaces in India."

"With the increasing acceptance of smart devices among consumers in India, Google and Amazon are identifying new ways of building an ecosystem for smart speakers to provide an enhanced consumer experience and building trust for secured use of these devices at home. This is catching the attention of traditional speaker companies as they are also planning to implement voice assistants in their devices in the next few months."

For the unaware, Smart speakers were first introduced to the Indian market in 2017Q4 when Amazon launched its Echo range of devices in the country. Since then, more than half a dozen companies have launched their devices in this category.