The latest IDC listing on market activities has been released detailing China’s smart speaker shipments in Q3, 2020. In the third quarter, an estimated 8.29 million units of smart speakers were released, a year-on-year decline of around 14.7%. This reflects some of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic which slowed down market activity this year.
According to the data released (via), the leading smart speaker manufacturer was Tmall Genie, with about 2.9 million units exported. The Aibaba group manufactured smart speaker brand accounted for 35% of the overall shipments in the third quarter of the year.
This news follows the earlier announcement by Alibaba group that the Tmall Elf speaker’s built-in AI assistant will be integrated into home appliances and more devices apart from its smart speakers. It is reported that the company presently has access to several hundreds of IoT platforms, spanning multiple categories, over 1,000 brands, with active support for more than 4,900 models, and AI assistants have made inroads into smart home devices and other appliances.
Several industry platforms like Aowei Cloud and Euromonitor, in their Q3 market report for 2020 also placed Tmall Genie shipments ahead of others in the Chinese smart speaker market.
Several analysts are of the view that China’s smart speaker equipment market has transited into a new phase – a period of adjustment, diversification, and a more robust business strategy, so as to garner more opportunities and expand to previously untapped segments of the market.
Ru Yi, general manager of Tmall Genie product and hardware Research and Development arm, said that with more than four years of tech accumulation and product iteration, the company’s AI capabilities had sufficiently improved, with its smart speakers a clear manifestation of its AI capabilities.
The company insists that it will continue to raise the bar in constantly improving the user experience of its smart devices.
Alibaba group says they are currently exporting AI capabilities to a wide and growing array of devices and processes including home appliances, home improvement, real estate, and others. It hopes to continue to strengthen the capabilities in entertainment, information, smart home, life services, children’s education, and health, by deploying its AI technology to the fullest.
UP NEXT: OPPO Reno5 Pro+ 5G launched with Sony IMX766 sensor, SD865, 65W fast charging, and more
