Amazon Echo is leading the Way Ahead of Other Smart Speakers

For a few years now, smart speakers have been the norm. This is primarily due to how convenient and easy it makes people’s lives. Because of its practicality, there is a sizable and fiercely competitive market for it. It appears that Amazon Echo is outperforming its rivals in this area.

The Origin of the Amazon Echo

Vice President of Amazon Alexa, Steve Rabuchin, had an idea. In his ideal world, consumers would converse not just with voice-activated gadgets like the Amazon Echo but also with cars, appliances, and everything in between.

His goal is being realized, and it all began with the smart speakers he created. As more people become comfortable with the idea of utilizing voice-activated gadgets in their homes, sales of smart speakers are rising.

Since its late 2014 launch as an invite-only program for Prime members, the Amazon Echo has become the industry standard for smart speakers and virtual help for homes.

The Amazing Features Of Amazon Echo

The Echo’s physical design consists of a short, black, somewhat stylish cylinder with two buttons (mute and listen), an LED ring that indicates the mode it’s in, and a respectable 360-degree speaker system. However, the true magic lies within, where Alexa, an Amazon product, is housed.

The Echo uses its seven noise-canceling microphones to search for the word “Alexa,” which is the name of its artificial intelligence avatar. Following the sound of its wake word, Alexa can carry out tasks, conduct web searches, and manage applications by utilizing any one of its 3,000+ skills.

In addition to reading you the news in the morning, downloading recipes, setting alarms, and playing music from your Spotify account, Alexa can also tell you jokes. It’s like a live-in friend. In a smart home, where the Echo is integrated with systems like the Nest and Hive to enable voice control of lights and appliances, this is where the Echo shines.

The Smart Speaker Competition Among Brands

By Q3 2016, Amazon had an overwhelming 94% market share thanks to its first-mover advantage, but Google Home has since begun to close the gap. Experts believe that while Google and Chinese companies like JD and Xiaomi will continue to gain traction, Echo will still be the best smart speaker available in the future.

Since smart speakers are such a potent entry point into their ecosystem of services and data collection, the two tech giants are vying for the early majority.

Based on the most recent estimates from Insider Intelligence, Amazon is expected to remain the market leader in the US for smart speakers through 2021, with about 70% of smart speaker users in the country expected to own an Echo device.

The statement went on to say that 69.7% of US smart speaker users will use an Echo this year, which is a slight decrease from 72.9% last year.

In contrast, 18.4% of smart speaker users will use other brands, such as Apple HomePod, Harman Kardon Invoke, and Sonos One, while 31.7% of users will use Google-branded devices.