Amazon's Alexa Rules American Smart Homes

Still capitalizing on its first mover advantage, Amazon continues to dominate the smart speaker landscape in the United States. According to a survey conducted by research firm Strategy Analytics in July and August 2018, the e-commerce giant accounted for 63 percent of the U.S. installed base at the time, beating Google (17 percent) and Apple (4 percent) by quite a margin.

Amazon had started the smart speaker craze in November 2014 with the release of the first Amazon Echo. Even though many consumers were initially skeptical about the prospect of bringing a listening device into their home, the novelty factor of having a voice assistant in your home quickly convinced millions of people to cast their worries aside and give Alexa a try.

The Consumer Technology Association expects smart speaker sales to amount to $3.2 billion in the U.S. this year, up 64 percent over the 2017 total.