Amazon Owns the Smart Speaker Space

Amazon’s vague stats aren’t the only indicator of its dominance this holiday season. According to app downloads, Amazon beat out its rivals over the holidays. As of writing, the Amazon Alexa app was the most popular app on both iOS and Android’s Google Play. On Android, the Google Home app did make its way to second place—so it would look like the Google Home was a popular gift, too. But on iOS, Google’s companion app didn’t even crack the top 10 most popular apps. While Amazon’s devices were a cross-platform favorite, those already embedded in the Google ecosystem were more likely to invest in its smart home speaker products. This is likely what we can expect when Apple comes out with its own Amazon Echo competitor, the HomePod, in early 2018. Apple’s $350 smart home speaker was supposed to debut before the holiday season, but unspecified delays set the launch back until some time next year. Apple almost certainly lost out on some of its target audience to Amazon Echo buyers over the past few months, and that's helped Amazon establish this significant dominance in the smart speaker space.