Friday Feature: Personal Assistant Devices Trending in Smart Technology
The future looks promising for Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and similar products, according to new research which shows personal assistant devices leading the trend in smart technologies.
Parks Associates, a firm that conducts research and analysis for IoT, smart home, and connected entertainment technologies, recently released new forecasts in preparation for CONNECTIONS™: The Premier Connected Home Conference taking place this week. The firm’s latest forecast predicts over 442 million connected devices to be sold in the U.S. in 2020 — encompassing everything from mobile to health and home to entertainment.
Of the devices analyzed, the fastest-growing category is personal home assistants with voice-controlled speakers, such as Alexa or Home, with an anticipated compound annual growth of 78.3 percent from 2015 to 2020. Voice control is the leading trend of the year for IoT and smart home, and it will be a focus at this year’s CONNECTIONS conference, according to Elizabeth Parks, SVP, Parks Associates.
The website eMarketer recently reported data also showing personal assistant devices trending. According to eMarketer, this year we’ll see an increase of almost 130 percent in the number of Americans using a voice-activated assistant device at least once a month — 35.6 million Americans in total.
And for the broader category of virtual assistants — devices like Cortana or Siri — the numbers are even higher, with about 60.5 million Americans using these devices at least once a month, or about one-fifth of the population.