Smart Speakers Must-Have Gadgets This Holiday

The “Alexa Revolution” continues. Detroit-based research and consulting firms Jacobs Media Strategies and jācapps, along with partner Sonic Ai, today revealed details from a new national online study showing that one in five (20%) respondents age 13 and older with Internet access plan to purchase a voice-controlled smart speaker such as an Amazon Echo or Google Home during the 2017 holiday season.

Notably, more than one in six online households (18%) now own at least one smart speaker, with 40% of this group already having two or more of the devices in their household. Smart speaker owners are also especially likely to purchase another of these voice command gadgets for themselves or as a gift this holiday season. In fact, six in ten smart speaker owners (61%) plan to purchase at least one more device during this all-important gift-buying cycle.

The study also shows that one in ten online households (11%) specifically owns an Alexa-enabled Amazon smart speaker such as the Echo, Echo Dot and Show devices; the majority of these owners (69%) have at least one Alexa “skill” enabled, while 45% have two or more Alexa “skills” enabled.

This study was designed by Jacobs Media Research Director, Jason Hollins. “New technologies such as the proliferation of smart speaker devices undoubtedly bring challenges to the AM/FM landscape, but with that comes vast opportunities for radio as well as audio consumers alike,” said Hollins.

“We at Jacobs Media will continue to assess these rapid changes and recommend solutions to the radio industry as audio technologies surge forward. Among the many topics we will examine in our Techsurvey 2018 study in January will be a deeper dive into smart speakers and how they are changing consumers’ audio listening,” he added.

Bob Kernen, COO of jācapps, notes, “With Black Friday and Cyber Monday now in the rearview mirror, both Amazon and Google continue to compete heavily to get as many of their smart speakers, now at their lowest price points ever, into as large a number of households as possible. This data strongly suggests smart speaker ownership will take off in the coming weeks.”

“Smart speakers are clearly the must-have gadget for the holidays. Like anything else, habits will form quickly which is the remarkable opportunity for broadcasters and podcasters. They need a smart audio strategy for smart speakers,” said Steve Goldstein, co-founder of Sonic Ai.