Strategy Analytics: Amazon beat Google in Q4 2018 smart speaker shipments

Smart speakers continue to sell like hotcakes. That's according to Strategy Analytics, which today reported that in the fourth quarter of 2018, shipments of AI-imbued speakers grew 95 percent from 22.6 million units in Q3 to 38.5 million units -- more than the entire 2017 total. It brought the year-end tally to 86.2 million units. The massive fourth-quarter leap isn't too surprising -- a report released by Adobe during the Consumer Electronics Show in January last year found that nearly 76 percent of smart speaker sales occur during the holiday season. Still, it's reassuring evidence of growth in a consumer sector that, unlike the slowing smartphone market, is nowhere near the point of oversaturation.