A smart speaker forecast from Deloitte calls for the product category to be worth $7 billion in 2019, making it the fastest growing connected device category in history, according to Deloitte researchers. A total of 164 million units will be sold at an average price of $43, researchers said. Revenues will rise 63% over the $4.3 billion total this year.
The Deloitte smart speaker forecast is one element of a broad-reaching report, titled 2019 Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions, that portends an active year. “2019 will see massive improvements in a wide range of technologies, pushing once-novel innovations into the mainstreams of our lives and work,” Sandra Shirai, the vice chairman, Deloitte LLP; and U.S. technology, media and telecommunications leader, said in a press release. “Emerging technologies are blurring traditional industry lines, impacting people and organizations; as a society, we’ll be smarter, more productive and more deeply engaged with the world around us.”
The firm says that 5G networks will “burst onto the scene” in 2019 and about 50 operators will offer 5G service in 2020.
Next year, about 70% of companies using artificial intelligence (AI) will do so through the cloud, researchers said.
Among other findings:
- Sixty percent of North American men ages 18 to 34 who watch sports on TV will also bet on sports. As a result, about 40 percent of all U.S.-based TV watching by men 25 to 34 years old will be driven by sports betting.
- Sales of enterprise 3D printers, materials, and services from large public companies will surpass $2.7 billion in 2019 and top $3 billion in 2020, growing 12.5 percent annually each year.
- The North American eSports market will expand by 35 percent, powered by advertising, broadcast licensing, and franchise sales. North American eSports franchise leagues will expand into specific U.S. cities.
- More than 85 percent of the adult population will listen to radio at least weekly in the developed world (the same proportion as in 2018), although reach will vary in the developing world. Combined, nearly 3 billion people worldwide will listen to radio weekly. In the U.S., Deloitte expects that more than 90 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds will listen to radio at least weekly in 2019, and will likely spend more time listening to radio than watching traditional TV by 2025.
- Quantum computing will emerge as one of the largest new technology revenue opportunities over the next decade but the technology is unlikely to replace classical computers. The future quantum computing market is expected to be around $50 billion per year by the 2030s, which is comparable to the supercomputer market.
Deloitte released its “2018 Global Mobile Consumer Survey” last month. The firm found that smartphones still are the fastest growing mobile device. About 270 million Americans use their phones a total of 14 billion times each day. Penetration rose 3% over 2017, with people over 44 years of age experiencing the strongest growth.
