More market research shows Google may have the global edge in smart speaker sales

Canalys has released its latest numbers on smart speaker sales, and the research firm found that Google beat out Amazon for most units sold globally in Q1 2018. Overall, sales in this product category rose 210% to 9 million units based on Canalys’ accounting. Its report showed 3.2 million Google Home and Google Home Mini devices sold in the period, compared with 2.5 million for Echo devices. That result gives Google a 36.2% market share for the period and a 27.7% share for Amazon.

The Q1 report found that Alibaba ranked third in worldwide smart speaker sales with an 11.8% share. Xiaomi placed fourth with a 7% share. These brands were boosted by growth in Asia sales.

The United States is by far the largest smart speaker market in Canalys’ report with 4.1 million units. China is the second largest market for smart speakers with 1.8 million, and Alibaba is the top purveyor there. South Korea is the third-largest market with 730,000 units sold in the period.

The overall trends highlighted by Canalys mimic those recently reported by Strategy Analytics. Both reports indicate strong global growth for the segment. However, the Strategy Analytics numbers show Amazon in the lead, and also found more sales for Apple than for Xiaomi.