• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 10, 2018

According to a new report from comScore, in a study of Smart Speaker devices, one in every 5 Wi-Fi households in the US owned at least a single Smart Speaker as of February, meaning that Smart Speaker penetration doubled in just 6 months. 

The biggest jump in household penetration came between November (12%) and December (17%) of last year, which comScore attributes to the devices being featured in Black Friday promotions and advertising. For comparison, a new Parks Associates study suggests that 15% of US broadband households owned a Smart Speaker, with a personal assistant, as of Q4 2017, which is generally in line with comScore’s figures.

A growing number of households are also using multiple Smart Speakers, according to comScore’s report. As of February of this year, 3 in 10 Smart Speaker households featured multiple such devices, up from 20% in June 2017. In fact, more than 1 in 10 Smart Speaker households had at least 3 devices as of February.

As Smart Speaker penetration expands, the demographics of the households owning them is changing. For example, homes with 35-44-year-olds continue to over-index the average, but by a smaller amount than in months prior. As of February, households with the 35-44 age segment, were 14% more likely than the Wi-Fi household average to own a Smart Speaker, down from a 22% above-average likelihood in October 2017, says the report.

By contrast, says the report, households at the age extremes have become increasingly likely to own a Smart Speaker. Those featuring the 18-24 segment, for example, are now just 9% less likely than the average Wi-Fi household to own a Smart Speaker, up from being 30% less likely in October.

Meanwhile, households featuring adults ages 65 and older are now just 15% less likely than the average Wi-Fi home to own such a device, up from being 22% less likely in October 2017.

Compared to the average WiFi HH. Smart Speaker JJ in Feb 2018 were 14% more likely to have at least one person aged 35-44 in the home..

Five interesting findings from comScore’s presentation:

• Smart Speakers Proving Popular With Middle-Aged, Higher-Income Households
• Based on a snapshot of penetration during October, comScore reveals that Smart Speakers are more prevalent in households that have at least one member in the 35-44 (index: 122) or 45-49 (index: 111) bracket. 
• Smartphone Voice Usage is Linked to Smart Speaker Purchase Intent
• 42% of smartphone voice technology users intent to buy a Smart Speaker, making them almost three times more likely to plan such a purchase than non-voice users (15%).
• Smart Speaker Owners Aren’t Sold On Using Them For Purchases, Yet
• Previous research from comScore found fairly limited usage of Smart Speakers for commerce purposes.
• Smart Speakers Have Wider Adoption Than Wearables
• In terms of active penetration of various devices in Wi-Fi households during October, Smartphones (90%) and Computers (89%) head the pack, with Tablets (60%) also in a majority of such households. Not far behind, OTT devices are seeing strong penetration, led by Streaming 
• Smart Speaker Owners Seem Brand-Loyal
• Finally, comScore points to data indicating that Smart Speaker owners are brand-loyal, at least when it comes to their streaming device purchases.

For additional informationabout SmartSpeaker owners, please visit Marketing Charts here.