Apple left mute in speaker race

SMART speakers will be talked to, talked about and will talk back en masse this Christmas ... but Apple’s addition has been muted.

While Google is set to dominate artificially intelligent speakers this festive season, and Amazon is expected to launch its popular Alexa devices in Australia as early as this week, Apple has pulled out of the race and won’t launch its smart speaker until next year.

Analysts say the company’s delay during the busiest shopping season of the year could hurt sales, though “diehard” Apple fans may hold out for it.

Telsyte managing director Foad Fadaghi said smart speakers – which answer user’s spoken questions, set alarms, announce news headlines and control smart appliances – were likely to be big sellers in Australia this Christmas.

“They are products that fit nicely into the range,” he said.

“Google’s products are really good for providing Wikipedia-type information, whereas Apple’s product is being touted as a sound system.”

Smart speakers sales are predicted to explode over the next five years from $US720 to $US3.25 billion by 2021.