PRESS: Russia to see formed smart speaker market only in 2–3 yrs

MOSCOW, Dec 11 (PRIME) -- The segment of smart speakers may show record growth internationally in 2019, but it will take two to three years for the world’s largest producers to enter the Russian market, where consumers are scarce, business daily Kommersant reported on Tuesday.

Consulting and audit company Deloitte said in a research that the industry for smart speakers, Internet-connected speakers with integrated digital voice assistants, will amount to U.S. $7 billion in 2019, or 164 million speakers at an average price of $43.

The company expects that 98 million speakers will be sold in 2018 at an average price of $44 to produce revenue of $4.3 billion. This 63% growth would make smart speakers the fastest growing connected device category worldwide in 2019.

China, the U.S., and the U.K. lead the world by penetration with the most popular models being Google, Amazon, Alibaba, and Xiaomi.

Despite a significant share of Alibaba on the global market of smart speakers, its product, Tmall Genie, is not officially sold in Russia. “In order to present it in Russia, it should be adapted to local services, the voice assistant should be translated into Russian, and it should be integrated into local infrastructure,” said Anton Panteleyev, a spokesperson for AliExpress, a part of Alibaba Group.

Marvel-Distribution analyst Anton Fomin said Yandex.Station with installed assistant Alice and Apple HomePod with Siri are the most noticeable smart speakers on the Russian market.

The local market counts only “thousands of devices” and will finally take shape within two–three years, when third party devices with the Google voice assistant enter it, Fomin said.

Mobile Research Group analyst Eldar Murtazin said there is no smart speaker market in the country as such, and devices are purchased only by enthusiasts. There are 1,500 Yandex.Stations sold in the country, he said.

Yandex.Station’s functions are limited. “Voice requests and search are secondary. Primary is that you can switch on the light or change a channel without leaving the sofa,” Murtazin said.

In total, the country’s portable acoustics segment, comprising smart speakers, grows and will reach 6–7 billion rubles as of the end of 2018, he said.

“All wireless speakers will become smart in the long run, that’s certain. It will happen in three–four years,” Murtazin said.

(66.2416 rubles – U.S. $1)

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