Wireless speakers contribute to a growing smart home tech wave in India

Smart home technology is on the rise in India, with smart speakers one of the newer contributors to the growth. Research firm IDC shared the country-focused data from its global quarterly smart home device report. Across categories, smart home devices in India saw on-year growth of 107% to hit 1.4 million in shipments during the second quarter of 2018. Smart speakers saw 43% growth during the period, but IDC has only been tracking the segment in India for three quarters.

Amazon topped India’s smart speaker market with 59% market share, but it was “closely followed” by Google in second place. Both manufacturers have lower-cost smart speakers that could help them secure more customers in developing markets.

“Although, the initial usage of smart speakers are currently limited to few use cases, as the smart homes market is at a very nascent stage in India, we are seeing signs of it growing beyond entertainment,” said Navkendar Singh, associate research director for IDC India. “Vendors are making efforts for building an ecosystem around the smart speakers, so as to provide superior consumer and connected home experience. As this category continues to gain traction, users are getting acquainted with the voice assistants and opting for it as a single platform to control all their smart home devices needs.”