There is a large number of surveys that focus on smart speakers, but there is some new data from Kantar Worldpanel that stands out when it comes to comparing attitudes and behaviors of Google Home and Amazon Alexa owners.
The survey was conducted in late 2018, and there are two main takeaways from it. According to the findings, Google Home owners are doing more with their smart speakers and have a greater satisfaction level than owners of Amazon Echo/Alexa devices.
The most common uses for smart speakers is to stream music and asking about weather, in that order. Not including these, Google Home owners are using their devices for more functions than Alexa users. Specifically, Google Home owners are making more calls, controlling smart home devices, check business hours and order food or groceries.
Demographically, Alexa owners skew slightly more female (54 percent) and older than Google Home users, who skew more male (60 percent) and younger.
Another big finding is that 16 percent of Google Home owners are using their laptop or desktop computers less after buying a smart speaker. This means that there are cases that devices like home speakers are a replacement devices in certain instances.
In the study, it was found that Google Home owners had a higher chance to own and integrate more smart devices than Alexa owners, such as thermostat, security, lighting. But, the study didn’t isolate the kind of device being used.
There are over 100 million smart speaker devices in U.S. homes. Right now, Alexa has a dominant market share, keeping mind that the numbers vary by survey and analyst estimate. Though Alexa is the stronger brand, these NPS figures suggest that Google Home will get better word of mouth and could erode Alexa’s lead over time.