Statista: Smart Speakers Getting More Popular

Judging from a Statista chart smart speakers such as the Amazon Echo are becoming increasingly popular, at least in the US-- 39 million Americans own such a device, and more people use them to access news, information and music.

Alexa statista

The chart is based on a November 2017 survey of 806 smart speaker owners conducted by NPR and Edison Research. It shows around 66% of smart speakers owners do not want to go back to life without the "little helper," while 39% are spending less time using the radio. This is perhaps not surprising, since listening to music (in many cases online radio) is one of the most commonly used features of the devices.

What is surprising is 34% of the survey participants say the smart speaker has replaced "some" smartphone usage. Some users even prefer to use the Amazon Alexa or its ilk instead of the TV (30%), tablet (27%) or PC (26%). Judging from such results, it is clear smart speakers are not as gimmicky as one might initially assume.

Go Is Alexa Killing the Radio Star? (Statista)