Google has already shipped 35% as many smart devices as Amazon

In the world of smart speakers, there are two heavyweights: Amazon and Google. Amazon kicked off the smart speaker wars back in June of 2015. Google finally got into the game in November of 2016, almost a year and a half later. You would expect Amazon to have a large lead, but it’s actually not as big as you might think.

Amazon has been shipping smart speakers longer and they have more models than Google. However, Google has shipped 7 million Google Home products compared to Amazon’s 20 million Echo devices. These numbers are through September of this year. The narrative around these numbers is about how Amazon is killing Google, but when you consider the context, Google is doing very well.

For the majority of this time, Google has been selling just the full-size Google Home for around $130 while Amazon has been selling the ultra-affordable Echo Dot. It’s impressive that Google has managed to sell a third of the devices in less time and with fewer options. It will be interesting to see how the numbers change when the Holiday sales are included.

[via WSJ]