Kiwis pass on smart speakers
Kiwis are missing out on one of the most popular new tech product ranges of the past few years. Smart speakers are powered by digital assistants that can play music, tell you the news or read a recipe to you just by asking.
Some can also send and read out messages and emails and make and receive phone calls.
The first smart speaker was the Amazon Echo which was released about three years ago. It dominated the market for a few years until Google released its Home speaker range in late 2016.
Now, Apple has one on the market, HomePod, which is powered by Siri, its digital assistant that is also found on iPhones. Samsung recently announced its Galaxy Home speaker but it hasn’t gone on sale yet.
Sales statistics from Strategy Analytics show that in the middle of this year Amazon had 41 per cent of the smart speaker market, down from 77 per cent the same time last year. Google had 28 per cent market share and Apple had 6 per cent. The rest of the market is made up of Chinese branded devices.
Americans have been buying up smart speakers at a quick rate, with about 40 million sold in the past few years. Smart speakers are also becoming part of popular culture, featuring in movies and television shows.
But the uptake in New Zealand has been much slower. There are a few reasons for this.
The first is because only the Amazon Echo has a Kiwi model on sale here.
While you can buy a Google Home device from a New Zealand store, it’ll be the United States model. That means it has no Kiwi apps such as those from Air New Zealand or RNZ like the Echo does.
And while the Echo is the topselling smart speaker, Google Home is the fastest-growing device by sales and without a Kiwi model the uptake has been slower.
Apple’s HomePod is also not on sale here.
Also, the success of the Echo is partly because of its promotion as part of Amazon Prime, its shopping membership programme. Without that driving sales in New Zealand, demand has been lower.
There are also other reasons, including concerns about invasion of privacy and a lack of usefulness.
So while 42 per cent of smart speaker owners in the US say that they’re essential to their everyday lives, they are largely missing from New Zealand homes.