• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, December 13, 2017

Consumers have spent a considerable chunk of change on smart audio devices, but it’s nothing compared to what’s coming.

Revenue from smart audio devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home will reach $2.5 billion this year, according to a new forecast from Juniper Research.

However, that number will rise to more than $10 billion by 2022, growing 33% a year along the way.

A price war in the smaller speaker market is underway, with the expectation that the average selling price will drop 20%, with devices costing below $75 comprising 40% of the market by 2022.

The current crop of sellers of smart speakers fall into one of three categories, according to Juniper. Here are the three:

• Established leader – With its lineup of Echo devices and many third-party companies adopting the Alexa voice interface, Amazon is the clear leader.
• Leading challengers – These are electronics and audio companies with a rage of smart audio devices but are targeted at a smaller market or a more limited range of devices. Companies in this group include Google, Harman Kardon and Onkyo.
• Disruptors, Emulators – The majority of smart audio players fall into this category. The companies here typically have few smart audio devices for sale, little way to connect them to existing audio network, or both, including Alibaba, Apple, Bose and Lenovo.

There are two distinct approaches to smart audio hardware: tech companies building from a digital assistant perspective while audio vendors see them as a way to make their products more relevant and feature rich, according to Juniper.

The leading smart speaker device is Amazon’s Echo Dot, but Juniper expects its growth will slow over the next five years as audio brands launch more smart speakers themselves.

Those speakers makers still will be chasing Amazon.