The global shipments of smart speakers grew 197 percent year-over-year in Q3 of 2018, reaching a record-breaking amount of 22.7 million, according to Strategy Analytics’ quarterly report. Chinese companies Alibaba, Baidu and Xiaomi were among the top five brands.
On the afternoon of May 24, Chinese AI company Mobvoi held a 2018 strategic new product launch, releasing four new wearable and smart home products.
On March 26, Baidu and Xiaoyu jointly held a product release conference in Beijing to release the first smart speaker with a screen, named the Duer Zaijia. Priced at 599 yuan ($96), it will start shipping on April 10.
2017 was supposed to be the year China’s domestic smart speaker market broke out. Alibaba, Xiaomi, JD.com, Rokid, Mobvoi and Himalayas all launched intelligent speakers. But with Xiaomi flooding the market with its 299 yuan AI speakers and Alibaba and JD.com competing on price, the domestic smart speaker market does not look optimistic.
Tichome, Mobvoi’s new smart speaker is going to get crowdfunded and be released soon. Mobvoi held a press conference on August 24th, announcing the official release of its brand new smart speakers Tichome at a price of 999 yuan. Members who were in on the crowdfund can purchase the speaker at a price of just…
