Smart speaker

Siri had demonstrated that voice assistants could work on smartphones. But phones required users to pull the device out, unlock it, and hold down a button. The idea of ambient voice computing—always listening, always ready—required a different form factor.

Amazon's Echo, announced in November 2014 and shipping widely in 2015, created a new device category by solving a simple insight: voice interfaces work best when they're always available. The cylindrical speaker sat in the kitchen or living room, listening for the wake word 'Alexa.' No buttons, no screens, no friction. Users could set timers while cooking, play music while cleaning, or check the weather while getting dressed—hands-free computing for domestic life.

The adjacent possible for smart speakers required virtual assistant technology mature enough to handle diverse queries, far-field microphone arrays that could pick up voices across noisy rooms, cloud speech processing fast enough for real-time response, and home Wi-Fi networks reliable enough for continuous connectivity. Each element had reached viability by 2014, though Amazon was first to combine them into a dedicated home device.

Amazon's strategic motivation went beyond hardware sales. Echo was a trojan horse for commerce—users could reorder products, add items to shopping lists, or make purchases by voice. The device also established Amazon as a platform for smart home control, with 'Skills' allowing third-party developers to extend Alexa's capabilities. By making their assistant the default interface to the connected home, Amazon aimed to replicate the dominance they'd achieved in e-commerce.

Google responded with Google Home (2016), leveraging their superior search and knowledge graph. Apple launched HomePod (2018), emphasizing audio quality for their premium positioning. Chinese manufacturers including Baidu and Xiaomi rapidly developed local alternatives. The category expanded globally within three years of Amazon's launch.

The geographic concentration reflected each company's base: Amazon's Lab126 hardware division in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Seattle developed Echo. Google Home came from Mountain View. Apple's HomePod emerged from Cupertino. The devices were assembled in China, but the voice processing infrastructure resided in massive cloud data centers in Virginia, Oregon, and across the globe.

Smart speakers enabled cascading applications. Smart home device adoption accelerated as voice control provided simpler interfaces than apps. Voice shopping, though slower to develop than Amazon hoped, introduced a new commerce channel. Accessibility benefits emerged—elderly and disabled users found voice interfaces more natural than touchscreens. Children too young to type could interact with digital systems.

By 2025, smart speaker growth had plateaued in mature markets as households reached saturation. The technology had become infrastructure rather than novelty—an embedded assumption that voice computing was available throughout the home. The integration of large language models into these devices promised more capable conversation, potentially revitalizing a category some had written off as mature.