• by Chuck Martin , February 24, 2020

With shipment more than doubling in the region, Asia has passed North America as the world’s largest market for smart speaker, according to a new forecast by Omdia.

Smart speaker shipments in Asia reached 47 million units in 2019, up from 21 million in 2018, giving Asia a 46% share of global shipments.

The Asian market ended the year with about 5 million more smart speaker shipments than North America.

“Voice assistant platforms increasingly are encouraging consumers to access their capabilities via smart speakers located throughout homes—rather than through smartphones,” stated Blake Kozak, principal analyst at Omdia. “Smart speakers and voice assistants are beginning to resemble ‘super-apps,’ with the capability to serve as the access point for multiple apps.”

More than 100 million smart speakers were shipped in 2019, an increase of 41% from the 72 million shipped in 2018, according to the forecast.

The installed base of smart speakers in 2019 was estimated at 205 million units.