Apple’s HomePod still has a long way to go; Amazon still rules the smart speaker market

Amazon, which already holds a dominant position in the U.S. smart speaker market, will continue to maintain this leadership through 2021, with approximately 70% of total U.S. smart speaker users expected to use an Amazon Echo device, according to a new report from eMarketer. 

The analyst firm estimates Amazon will easily hold onto its top spot through 2021, when nearly 70% of total U.S. smart speaker owners will continue to use an Amazon Echo device. Specifically, 69.7% of U.S. smart speaker users will use an Echo in 2020, down slightly from 72.9% last year. In 2021, the number will drop a bit further, with then 68.2% of U.S. smart speaker owners using an Echo device.

Meanwhile, 31.7% of smart speaker owners in 2020 will use a Google-branded device, and only 18.4% will use some other brand —such as Apple’s HomePod, Sonos One or Harmon Kardon Invoke, for example. (The percentages total more than 100% because some smart speaker owners do own more than one brand, eMarketer notes.)

Apple’s HomePod accounted for just 5% of the estimated 76 million smart speaker installed base in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2019, according to August 2019 data shared today by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). That’s the latest HomePod percentage estimate I can find.