— This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on August 18, 2018, Tuesday.
A source told CNBC that amazon is increasing its investment on smart home, and it plans to launch 8 latest voice assistants by then end of this year. The signal is amazon will further integrate smart home, and voice assistant tech shed light for that.
These coming equipment include microwave oven, loudspeaker, bass speaker and vehicle equipment, etc. And all devices will be equipped with a receiving unit that matches amazon's voice assistant system, Alexa, that is to say, we can control this series of home operations by voice soon. Amazon has not officially confirmed this news yet, but source disclosed that amazon will formally introduce some devices this month later.
Alexa system is the most popular voice assistant in US market though; market competition is increasing severe, among that, amazon, google and apple form a 3-giant situation, when google launched Google Home, its global sales soar, and challenging amazon. Apple's Home Pod sale is also growing, and that may be better that the negative expectation. Meanwhile, Samsung and other 3 companies have released voice assistant speakers. At the same time, China is the fastest growing market for voice assistants, however, because home brands are on strong rise, making those several giants hard to expand their markets.
The fierce competition in this sector indicates what the future trend is: integrated smart home is evitable. The whole voice assistant market is expected to reach $30bn in 2024, Global Market Insight expected, and that will boost smart home market.
Data shows in 2016, global smart home market was around $24.1bn, and it is expected to rise to $53.45bn in 2022, it compound increase rate will above 14.5% from 2017 to 2022. One of the following trends is the face-to-face competition between voice assistant suppliers and home appliance companies. For example, many home appliance brands launched loudspeakers and smart microwave ovens that can match Alexa, but what we will see soon is Amazon and other companies will introduce their own home appliances to further encroach on market stakes of smart home appliance.