The Verge reveals that an Amazon exec (Dave Limp, SVP Devices and Services) disclosed to that publication that over 100-million devices with the Alexa voice-control system have been sold. naturally that includes Echo devices, the Alexa flagships, plus other brands such as Sonos speakers with Alexa intelligence built in.

Amazon is sold out of Echo Dots through January, the article also reveals, and that Amazon is attempting to rush Dots over from the Chinese manufacturer ASAP.

While the big 100-million statistic is certainly brag-worthy, Amazon is at a disadvantage against main competitor Google, whose Assistant platform is built into Android, the world’s most-used mobile operating system. But, as the Verge article points out, being built in doesn’t necessarily mean it is used. Buying a device specifically for using the voice control platform represents a more significant instance of consumer adoption and membership in a consumer electronics ecosystem. On that basis, Google competes with its line of Home devices powered by Assistant, but also with the vast Android empire.

Highlighting that last point, news from CES today is that nearly a billion Assistant-powered devices are in use — and “the vast majority” are Android phones. So: ten times the impressive Alexa number, but actual usage (as opposed to installed presence) is unknown.

Along that line but farther back in the field are Apple’s HomePod (and Siri in iOS devices) and Samsung’s Bixby (in stand-alone devices and Samsung phones which also run Assistant).