K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
Smart speakers with voice assistants have accomplished one key goal. At a low cost, consumers were able to bring some smarts into their homes on the cheap. And that has led to a surge in the sales of other connected devices to actually control by voice. Think how many more smart outlets, light bulbs, switches, and cameras were bought because they work with smart speakers.
But aside from that, have any companies offered truly compelling reasons to chat more with our in-home digital assistants? So far no, except when it suits them. Hey Alexa, notify me when that changes.
This situation is manifesting itself in low engagement with Alexa, according to a recent Bloomberg report. According to what it says is internal Amazon data, Bloomberg tells us that Amazon’s effort to flood the market with low-cost smart speakers isn’t equating to revenue stream growth based on our fewer and fewer conversations with Alexa. Amazon may be surprised by this, but I’m not.
Goodbye smart speaker sales growth
It’s not a stretch to say that the growth of the smart speaker hardware market has basically ground to a halt. We experienced a few years of sales growth well into the 30 and 40 percent range. Amazon now forecasts a meager 1.2 percent annual sales increase in smart speakers for the next few years, according to the internal documents cited by Bloomberg.
I expected this: Low-cost speakers and deals that include a free speaker with some connected device purchase made it easy to saturate the market. In many homes, the number of these speakers have multiplied like Tribbles in Star Trek. (Or “like rabbits” if you’re not a Trekkie). Most of us simply have all of the connected speakers we need, if not more than that.
Continue reading: https://staceyoniot.com/why-are-fewer-people-chatting-with-alexa/
But aside from that, have any companies offered truly compelling reasons to chat more with our in-home digital assistants? So far no, except when it suits them. Hey Alexa, notify me when that changes.
This situation is manifesting itself in low engagement with Alexa, according to a recent Bloomberg report. According to what it says is internal Amazon data, Bloomberg tells us that Amazon’s effort to flood the market with low-cost smart speakers isn’t equating to revenue stream growth based on our fewer and fewer conversations with Alexa. Amazon may be surprised by this, but I’m not.
Goodbye smart speaker sales growth
It’s not a stretch to say that the growth of the smart speaker hardware market has basically ground to a halt. We experienced a few years of sales growth well into the 30 and 40 percent range. Amazon now forecasts a meager 1.2 percent annual sales increase in smart speakers for the next few years, according to the internal documents cited by Bloomberg.
I expected this: Low-cost speakers and deals that include a free speaker with some connected device purchase made it easy to saturate the market. In many homes, the number of these speakers have multiplied like Tribbles in Star Trek. (Or “like rabbits” if you’re not a Trekkie). Most of us simply have all of the connected speakers we need, if not more than that.
Continue reading: https://staceyoniot.com/why-are-fewer-people-chatting-with-alexa/
