Why should we care about Smart speakers? Tomas Granryd (SR, Sweden) thinks he has some answers.
Some people (inside and outside of the radio industry) believe they are just gadgets, but Tom disagrees. He told the Radiodays audience, that the important thing is not the system – instead it’s about the behaviour. Amazon Echo, Google Home and soon Apple HomePod are already available in selected countries and smart speakers such as these are changing listening habits.
So how are people using voice activated speakers? Tom Webster (Edison Research, USA) talked the Radiodays Europe crowd through The Smart Audio Report, a survey of smart speaker owners.
90% of people who bought a smart speaker initially wanted it to play music. Some listened to radio. But many people also just wanted to talk to their computer!
When people first purchase a smart speaker, they use it to listen to music. But the longer they have it, the more they use it for other things. 42% of smart speaker owners now say that they are essential to their everyday lives!
“It is important as this tech will get embedded into society” Tom says. It is also necessary to understand what it is replacing. “We know that 64% of smart speaker owners want the technology in their car”, but also, (and this is the scary bit), most respondents have gotten rid of their radios…
So if smart speakers are the future, what does that make radio?
