Google is now leading the European smart home segment

The smart home is increasingly becoming normalised in the eyes of the consumer, and Google is leading the way in Europe.

According to IDC’s Quarterly Smart Home Device Tracker, the smart home segment is growing healthily though there doesn’t seem to be any one manufacturer dominating the space. Google is holding down the largest market share, thanks to its smart speaker products, though there are gains for a quite a variety of products.

“Google had a stellar quarter and was the clear winner in the first quarter, reaching an important milestone in Europe,” said Antonio Arantes of IDC. “Google continues to expand to new countries and support new native languages at a faster pace than Amazon. This is also contributing to strengthening its position in voice assistant platforms.

“Google Assistant was present in 49.2% of all smart speakers sold in Europe in the first quarter of 2019. Meanwhile, Amazon faced supply issues, with the Amazon Echo Dot being out of stock in some countries for several weeks, leaving space for Google Home products to grow.”

The indirect win for Google is perhaps the most important aspect of this momentum. One-off sales to consumers are all well and good, but another interface with consumers offers recurring revenues through third-party relationships and advertising opportunities. This is more in-line with the traditional business model for Google.

This is far from the end of the story however; smart speakers should still be considered a niche segment though growth is impressive. The smart home market is forecast to reach 107.8 million units in 2019, up 21% year-on-year, before hitting 183.9 million a year in 2023.

Looking at the winners across the smart home segment as a whole, it’s the traditional consumer electronics heavyweights who are winning (aside from the smart speaker segment):

Looking at the segment growth, home entertainment products are the largest area collecting 55.4%, while smart speakers sit in second place with 21.4%. Lighting, home security and thermostats collectively accounted for 20.8% of the smart home market, with IDC predicting 27.11% CAGR between 2019 and 2023. By 2023, these products could account for an additional 9.5% market share.