Apple is off to a slow start in the smart speaker wars, according to newly released data from research firm Strategy Analytics.
During the first quarter of the year, Apple shipped 600,000 HomePod units, earning the company 6 percent market share, according to Strategy Analytics. To be fair, this was based on just two months of availability and not the full quarter. Apple's showing was enough to put the company in fourth place ahead of Xiaomi, which shipped 200,000 units and captured 2.4 percent share.
Amazon remains the smart speaker market leader with 4 million Echo shipments during the period. The retail giant secured 43.6 percent market share that, while down from a whopping 81.8 percent of the market last year, easily topped the space. Better yet for Amazon, year-over-year smart speaker shipments jumped a whopping 102 percent.
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Google was able to nab the second place last quarter on 2.4 million Google Home shipments. Those shipments were up a staggering 709 percent compared to the prior year. Google's strong performance earned the company 26.5 percent of the market — a figure that easily topped the 12.4 percent market share Google had in the prior year.
Interestingly, China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba was able to capture the third spot in the first quarter and landed between Google and Apple with 700,000 unit shipments. Alibaba, which didn't sell any smart speakers in the first quarter of 2017, was able to capture 7.6 percent market share.
Overall, the smart speaker market had a strong first quarter with 9.2 million units sold worldwide during the period. That was up 278 percent from the 2.4 million smart speakers customers bought during the first quarter of 2017.
Looking ahead, Strategy Analytics didn't say whether Apple could stage a stronger performance against Amazon or Google. The researcher did, however, say that Amazon and Google clearly have control over the market and it expects China and Chinese companies like Alibaba to play a bigger role in the space going forward.
But if anything is clear, smart speakers are in vogue.
"We are clearly heading towards to a time in the not too distant future when voice becomes a standard mode of technology interaction alongside established approaches like keyboard, mouse and touchscreen," Strategy Analytics vice president David Mercer said in a statement.
