Currently 10 percent of U.S. broadband households own a smart speaker with a personal assistant, such as an Amazon Echo or Google Home.
"Collectively, companies are competing to stay in the race for dominance in the voice-first market," said Dina Abdelrazik, a research analyst at Parks Associates, in a statement. "Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung continue to announce new product enhancements in order to stay ahead of the demand for voice technologies. As the voice-first landscape expands, we will see voice capabilities embedded into a variety of devices, from appliances to thermostats to lighting. Voice alleviates complexity in the user experience for these products, and as a result, voice will serve as a prime differentiator in the user experience for the smart home."
"Emergence and the rapid growth of the voice-first market deliver a great promise to consumers, as it brings a completely new and natural way of interaction with the digital world and their smart homes in particular," said Avi Barel, business development director at the ULE Alliance.