Arms race: Amazon's Echo and Google's Home grew exponentially this Christmas

Looks like many people had a talkative present this Christmas. According to conversational user interface analytics company VoiceLabs, Echo sales spiked over 400% versus last year, and both Google Home and Alexa usage saw third-party developer growth of over 1500%. "This holiday season saw one of the biggest jumps in terms of units sold, which equates to a lot more Echos in the wild," says CEO Adam Marchick. "We also saw a spike in Google Home activations and usage." Last year Amazon sold north of one million units; this year the number should be north of four million. Google Home sales are harder to estimate, since the product has no comparable year-over-year history, and Google has not released sales figures.