Parks Associates Predicts 60 Percent Growth for Smart Speakers with Voice

Currently, a little more than 10 percent of U.S. homes have some sort of smart speakers with personal assistants, such as the Amazon Echo, Dot, or Tap, or Google Home, according to technology research firm Parks Associates. By 2020, the firm expects annual sales in this product category to exceed 50 million units.

"Consumer interest in voice-based technologies has surged across many areas of connected living as a preferred consumer interface," said Dina Abdelrazik, a research analyst at Parks Associates, in a statement. "Products from household names including Amazon, Google, and Apple have moved voice control into the consumer consciousness, and now Samsung is entering this field with Bixby, a voice-activated virtual assistant soon to be available on the Galaxy S8 smartphone. Voice is now vying to be the default method for consumer interaction with all connected products."