Gurugram, Nov 16: Led by Amazon Echo devices, the shipments of smart home speakers are expected to cross 7.5 lakh units in India by the end of year, which is an all-time high, a new report said on Monday. The market is primarily led by Amazon Echo Smart Speakers which had a massive 95.9 per cent cumulative market share for the January-September period. Xiaomi made an impressive debut in the September quarter, with 7.1 per cent market share by unit shipments. Google has a cumulative India market share of 1.2 per cent for the year (till September). Google to Link Nest Audio Speakers With Chromecast Streaming Devices.

"As Indian homes go more for smart technologies, voice-controlled device like a smart speaker has an increasingly important role to play. The users understand this and are investing in the device which offers a blend of utility as well as fun use cases," said Faisal Kawoosa, Founder & Chief Analyst, techARC.

Amazon has nurtured the ecosystem well by encouraging a wide choice of apps (skills) to be developed giving users a lot of engaging content for using the device which has made Echo devices very popular," Kawoosa said in the ‘India Smart Speaker Market Scan' report.

Amazon Echo Dot third generation was the most sold smart speaker in the July-September period, with over 53 per cent of the smart speakers shipped being Amazon Echo Dot 3rd generation. For the cumulative period of January-September, the Amazon Echo model share stood at a huge 70.4 per cent. The average selling price (ASP) of a smart speaker was Rs 5,560 which is expected to go high as the proportion of display-enabled devices increases in the overall shipments. For the July-September period, the ASP was Rs 6,100.

The trend of buying smart speakers with display is on the rise in India. In Q3, shipments of smart speakers with display rose by 87% compared to the previous quarter. The cumulative share of display enabled speakers for Q3 was 6.4 per cent, with the quarter percentage recording highest at 9.7 per cent.

"Among the display-enabled smart speakers, 65.9 per cent (2 out of every 3) were with 8-inch screen size. This makes Amazon Echo Show 8 the most popular display-enabled smart speaker," the report mentioned. "In the display-enabled Smart Speakers, there is still scope for more players to foray particularly when the trend is catching up".

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 16, 2020 02:08 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).