Amazon Echo & Google Home to Reside in Over 50% of US Households by 2022, as Multi-Assistant
Devices Take Off
US smartphone users to use 3 voice assistant
platforms on average by 2022
A new study from Juniper Research has found that smart speakers such as Amazon Echo, Google Home, and the
Sonos One will be installed in over 70 million US households by 2022,
reaching 55% of all homes. Total installed devices will exceed 175
million.
Juniper forecasts that Voice Assistant devices across all platforms -
smartphones, tablets, PCs, speakers, connected TVs, cars and wearables,
will reach 870 million devices in the US by 2022, an increase of 95%
over the 450 million estimated for 2017.
Omni-Platform Assistants & Multi-Assistant Platforms to Proliferate
The new research, Digital Voice Assistants: Platforms, Revenues & Opportunities 2017-2022,
found that the ability to pass information between device platforms
will become critical for digital assistants in future, due to many users
engaging multiple assistants.
However, despite rising numbers of smart home assistants, Juniper
forecasts that most voice assistant usage will be on smartphones, with
over 5 billion in use globally by 2022.
The research found a growing trend for devices with multiple assistants
(eg, Google Assistant and Cortana being available on the same speaker).
The current experience with multi-assistant devices is unwieldy, and
Juniper argues that hardware and software vendors need to make
cross-assistant usage smoother and more intuitive.
Voice Assistant Ad-Spend to Reach $19bn by 2022
The research notes that end-user monetisation is uncertain for digital
voice assistants, with most either provided for free or only charging
developers for language processing.
Juniper believes that advertising is the biggest revenue opportunity for
voice assistants, forecasting ad-spend to reach nearly $19 billion
globally by 2022; although it is not without pitfalls:
“Voice-based interaction presents less options than other forms of advertising, meaning less adverts are possible”,notes research author James Moar. “Not
all voice interactions are product searches, meaning advertisers will
need to adjust their strategies to build a brand’s voice strategy around
information provision as well as sales.”
Source: Juniper Research media announcement