Defying the impact of the pandemic, global sales of smart speakers in Q2 2020 rose to 30.0 million units, an increase of 6% compared to Q1, according to preliminary results from Strategy Analytics. Amazon retained first place with a share of 21.6%, followed by Google (17.1%) and Baidu (16.7%). Chinese vendors recovered from a slow Q1, which was affected by pandemic-related issues in the Chinese market. Most US players, however, suffered from slower consumer demand in Q2 and saw sales declines. Strategy Analytics is predicting a stronger Q3 as more economies begin to recover, and global sales are on track to reach 161 million units for the full year.

The full report from Strategy Analytics’ Smart Speakers and Screens (SSS) service, Preliminary Smart Speaker Vendor & OS Shipment and Installed Base Market Share by Region: Q2 2020, can be found here.

David Watkins, Director at Strategy Analytics, commented: “The pandemic continues to affect sales patterns around the world. Q2 demand in Asia-Pacific recovered from the drama of lockdown in Q1, but North American and European sales fell slightly quarter on quarter as those economies went into reverse. We are optimistic that recovery in these regions will mirror what we have seen in China and that the underlying popularity of smart speakers will propel the market to a positive outcome for the rest of the year.”

David Mercer, VP, Media and Interactive Home, added: “Smart speakers have not suffered as badly as major segments like smartphones, and Q1 supply issues are now largely resolved. Vendors should nevertheless take particular care with brand messaging as our research points to clear evidence that consumers are switching brands based on how companies respond to the pandemic.”

Out local Yandex, Mail.ru and MTS guys also quickly growing (doubling each few months now). Quality of recognition is improving at staggering speed. Same is true for new skills addition.

It is expected that more than 2 millions software developers will be doing smart speakers related development within next 2 years.