Only 6% of consumers use smart speakers to full capacity

Wi-Fi speakers that come with virtual assistants are popular among smart home owners. Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant were created to not only play music, but to also set alarms, take voice commands to control lights and thermostats, make calls, order an Uber and reply to text messages, among other functions. Even though they meet a number of user needs, thanks to machine learning technology, not everybody uses them to control smart devices.

According to IHS Market, 65 percent of smart speaker owners in the US, the UK, Japan, Germany and Brazil don’t use the multiple features on their devices, limiting themselves to playing music or listening to the news. Only 6 percent use their smart speakers to control their smart home devices, even though 20 percent own both an Amazon Alexa and a Google Home.

“Controlling smart home devices by voice currently represents only a small fraction of total smart-speaker interactions,” explained Blake Kozak, principal analyst, smart home, IHS Markit. “However, this category will continue to trend upward as more video-streaming devices come to rely on voice control, as security alarm systems adopt voice control to arm and disarm, and as more builders embed smart devices throughout new homes.”

The smart home market is quite fragmented, but its growth can’t be hindered. At the beginning of 2018, over 900 smart home device makers released some 4,100 IoT devices, according to IHS Markit, and smart speakers are expected to make a significant difference in the mass adoption of smart homes. By the end of the year, global revenue is expected to near $18 billion, almost double the value of 2016.

“While devices like thermostats, connected appliances and door locks are important in their own rights, smart speakers will ultimately be the primary disruptor for smart home deployments, and the means by which consumers interact with all other devices,” Kozak said.