TrendForce has published a new report profiling the latest trends in the global smart speaker market. According to data in the report, the global shipments of smart speakers are expected to reach 62.25 million units in 2018. Driven by the expansion of Google Home into more regions and the growth of smart speaker market in China, the shipments would increase further by 53% YoY, reaching 95.25 million units in 2019. With the strongest growth momentum among all categories of consumer electronics, smart speakers have emerged as a major application of voice interactions and are fast becoming the gateway to other smart-home products as well as the vast ecosystems. Companies including Apple, Facebook, Baidu, and Tencent have all entered the market this year, in addition to first movers.
In this release, TrendForce provides predictions of the information and communication technology industry for 2019, focusing on 10 key themes. Some of these themes continue from last year but will show significant evolution in the upcoming year.
As Apple unveils its new iPhone models, TrendForce has provided the following comments for your reference.
The global smartphone market has been growing in 2Q18 driven by the launch of new models by Chinese smartphone brands and the brands’ strong sales in overseas markets, according to TrendForce. As the result, the production volume of smartphone grew by 3% QoQ, reaching 352 million units in 2Q18, and is expected to grow by another 6% QoQ to reach 373 million units in 3Q18 driven by the holiday sales in the peak season.
Samsung will launch models with in-display fingerprint sensors, following Vivo, Huawei, Xiaomi, and OPPO, says TrendForce. The adoption by these major Android smartphones has constantly increased the penetration of in-display fingerprint technologies, among which ultrasonic and optical fingerprint sensing have made considerable breakthroughs. TrendForce estimates that ultrasonic and optical in-display fingerprint sensors will account for 13% of all fingerprint sensor technologies in 2019, significantly up from 3% in 2018.
