Smart speaker and display shipment jumps 10% in Q3
According to Strategy Analytics
Shipment of smart speakers and smart display __ or smart home hub products __ had increased 10% from a year ago during the third quarter of 2021, according to analyst firm Strategy Analytics.
Shipment reached 39.3 million units during the third quarter, the firm said.
Shipment of smart displays increased 19% year-on-year to 11.2 million units while those for smart speakers rose 7% over the same time period, Strategy Analytics said.
According to the analyst firm, Google Nest Hub, Amazon’s Gen 2 Echo Show and Baidu’s Xiaodu Zaijia 1c were three best-selling smart displays during the third quarter, while Google Nest Mini, Apple HomePod Mini and Amazon Gen 4 Echo Dot were the three best selling devices overall.
In the overall smart speaker and smart display market for the second quarter in 2021, the leaderboard remained unchanged, with Amazon at the top followed by Google, Baidu, Alibaba, and Apple, respectively, Strategy Analytics said.
The gap between these top five firms and others continued to expand as these companies controlled entry-level (US$50 to US$99) and ultra-low (US$49 and less) price bands, with Apple’s surge powered by its HomePod Mini, the analyst firm said.
“While our earlier forecasts showed we expected the market to return to stronger growth levels in 2021 if component supply constraints eased, this scenario is not playing out,” said Strategy Analytics intelligent home director David Watkins.
“China alone typically accounts for 30% to 40% of the global market each quarter, so challenges experienced by Alibaba, Baidu, and Xiaomi will be indicators for how well – or not – China is managing its supply chain issues. The contract manufacturers partnered with these three, and dozens of other smart speaker and smart display brands, are settling in for a prolonged period of supply chain issues,” he added.
Meanwhile, uncertainty over supply chain issues and the recent Delta and Omicron variants of the COVID-19 virus is expected to persist up to 2022, the firm added.