Worldwide Home Audio Market Finishes Year On $11 Billion Dollar High

Worldwide demand for home audio devices continues to gather momentum, with the category outperforming the wider CE market and on track to finish 2016 at 102 million units shipped and close to $11 billion in trade value, according to the latest market report from Futuresource Consulting. The rise of voice-controlled, connected-speakers, promises to propel further growth, according to the market research firm.

Futuresource Consulting has just released its most recent consumer electronics report covering a new place for audio in the smart home. “Voice recognition technology is shaking up the CE industry, broadening the horizons of speaker vendors and reinventing the audio device as the gatekeeper of voice, smart home and machine learning,” the report says. Futuresource research forecasts important growth in audio applications for the connected home.

XMOS and Sensory have announced a partnership to deliver Sensory’s TrulyHandsfree voice control technology on the XMOS xCORE-VOICE far-field voice capture processing platform. TrulyHandsfree is the latest generation of voice keyword detection software from Sensory, a recognized provider of speech recognition solutions. The partnership combines embedded speech capture with proven voice control technologies, with high accuracy and robust performance in noisy environments.

Logitech announced a new Amazon Alexa skill that enables voice control of the entire living room entertainment experience using a Logitech Harmony Hub remote control with Alexa-enabled devices such as the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot. When the skill is enabled on Amazon Echo or Amazon Echo Dot, users can start and stop Harmony Activities, control entertainment devices, or even select favorite channels, using only their voice.

Bose announced a new member of its iconic SoundLink Bluetooth speaker family: the SoundLink Color II. This time, the main reason for the update was to introduce a more rugged water-resistant design, and new colors, maintaining the same quality sound of the original. The new Bose Color II speakers offer an even better combination of performance, durability and fun than its predecessor, making it ideal to take just about anywhere.

While IFA 2016 was in full swing in Berlin, Germany, technology market research specialists Futuresource Consulting highlighted the importance that voice will play in next generation CE products. Following earlier announcements from Amazon, Google and Harman, the Berlin consumer electronics show was rich in product previews and demonstrations about the future of personal assistants and voice recognition applications.