Amazon topped the smart speaker sales in 2020 in India, leaving brands like Google, Xiaomi, and Apple far behind, according to a report by market research firm techARC. The smart speaker segment crossed 1 million shipments in India for the first time in 2020. Amazon captured 79 percent of the market share by volume, whereas its market share by value stood at 80 percent. Xiaomi that entered the smart speaker segment last year saw fast-paced growth and took the second spot in market share by value at 10 percent.
According to techARC’s latest findings, the most sold smart speaker in India was the Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) followed by the Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) on the second spot. The Google Home Mini came in third and Xiaomi also made an appearance in the top five with the Mi Smart Speaker L09G. The Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) with Clock took the fifth spot in the ranking. The report says that smart speakers worth Rs 463.4 crores ($63.6 million) were sold during 2020.
Lauding Xiaomi’s performance, the report said that the company is witnessing a fast growth in the smart speaker segment. It shipped more than 75,000 units and secured 8 percent market share by volume in just the first year of its entry into the segment. In terms of value, Xiaomi’s market share stood at 10 percent. However, the gap between Amazon and other smart speakers from Apple, Google, and even Xiaomi was pretty significant.
Apple’s smart speaker range, which includes the Apple HomePod and the Apple HomePod Mini, only started selling in India in October 2020. techARC says that Apple managed to rake in 2 percent of market share by volume in just one quarter. The research firm says that 84 percent of Apple smart speaker shipments were of HomePod Mini.
techARC predicts that the smart speaker category will post an annual growth of more than 35 percent for next 2-3 years as more players foray into the segment complimenting consumers’ intent to buy smart speakers.
Is HomePod mini the best smart speaker under Rs. 10,000? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.
