Google's Home Mini was the top-selling smart speaker globally in Q2 2018, according to Strategy Analytics. Google sold 2.3 million of the devices, grabbing 20 percent market share for the quarter.

Amazon, which still dominates the market overall, saw two of its smart speakers round out the top three for the quarter: The Amazon Echo Dot came in second with 2.2 million shipments and 18 percent market share. There were 1.4 million shipments of the Echo, giving it 12 percent of the market.

Apple's HomePod didn't break into the top five -- it accounted for just 6 percent of the market. However, it was the Q2 market leader in terms of revenue, with a 16 percent share. Within the small-but-growing market for smart speakers that cost more than $200, the HomePod holds 70 percent share.

Following the Amazon Echo, the next-most-popular devices were the Alibaba Tmall Genie (with 800,000 shipments) and the Google Home (800,000 shipments).

Overall, shipments reached 11.7 million units for the quarter, up from 3.9 million in Q2 2017. Last month, Strategy Analytics noted how the expanding market was taking a hit on Amazon's dominance: The Seattle company's share of the market in Q2 2018 stood at 41 percent, down from 44 percent in Q1 and down from 76 percent in Q2 2017.

The growing market generated more than $1 billion in wholesale revenue for Q2 2018. While the Google Home Mini and Amazon Echo Dot accounted for 38 percent of global shipments, they only accounted for 17 percent of revenue.

In a statement, Strategy Analytics VP David Mercer suggested the market will continue to grow, including the premium end.

"The number of smart speaker models available worldwide has grown significantly over the last twelve months as vendors look to capitalize on the explosive market growth," he said. "Heavyweight brands such as Samsung and Bose are in the process of launching their first models, adding further credibility to the segment and giving consumers more options at the premium-end of the marker."

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Is Google Home finally catching up on Amazon's Echo smart speaker range in terms of sales?

Amazon's share of global smart speaker shipments fell to 41 percent in the second quarter of this year -- down slightly from the 44 percent share it had in the first quarter, but down significantly from the 76 percent share it had in the second quarter of last year.

In contrast, Google saw its share increase to 28 percent in the second quarter of this year -- up from just 16 percent during the same period last year, according to data from tech analyst Strategy Analytics.

Alibaba finished third, with Apple and JD.com making up the rest of the top five.

Amazon Echo: a less dominant market leader.

Smart speakers have become a key battleground for tech vendors in recent years as vendors fight for control over the emerging and potentially lucrative smart home market (increasingly, these smart speakers are acting as the hub controlling other smart home devices). Amazon got a major head start -- and to a certain extent defined the market -- with its Echo device, which uses the Alexa digital assistant; but Google, and more recently Apple, have been chipping away at that lead. As the use of voice control becomes more widespread, the digital assistants that power these devices are also being found further afield, in cars and in business for example, which makes the battle for the smart home even more significant.

Amazon and Google together account for 69 percent of smart speaker shipments, but that's down from over 90 percent a year ago. This reflects the growth of competition and also Amazon and Google's inability to break into the fast-growing Chinese market, which is dominated by local powerhouse brands such as Alibaba, JD.com, and Baidu, said Strategy Analytics.

Google and Amazon's strategy of pursuing sales volume over margin is making life very difficult for vendors entering the market with products that offer similar features, the analyst firm said, suggesting that the premium end of the market offers the opportunity to vendors who can entice consumers with superior build and audio quality.

Buyers of cheaper smart speakers such as the Echo Dot or Google Home Mini who are looking to trade up will be a key target demographic for such vendors.

"Apple has established an early lead in the premium smart speaker market, benefiting from a fiercely loyal fan base and strong momentum behind its Apple Music service. However, we expect the higher end smart speaker market to grow and become much more competitive moving forwards as vendors such as Samsung with its Galaxy Home speaker look to capitalize on the growing acceptance of voice as an established control mechanism," said David Mercer, vice president at Strategy Analytics.

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Update: You're now able to play both movies and TV shows through your Google Home using a Chromecast following an update after Google I/O.

Once you've linked your video apps with your Google account, you'll be able to ask the speaker to play a specific TV show or movie, pause it, turn on the subtitles as well as a variety of other commands that'll come in useful if you lose the remote.

It works with Netflix, Google Play Movies & TV as well as YouTube TV, plus some markets will be able to access CW, CBS, HBO Now, Viki, Crackle, Red Bull and STARZ just by asking the smart speaker.

Original story: It was a bizarre omission in the first place, but Google has finally patched up a key gap in its Google Home smart speaker's functionality.

Announced at Google I/O, you'll finally be able to control your Google Play Movies library using a Google Home speaker. 

So long as you've got a Chromecast device attached to your TV, barking a movie request to your Google Home speaker will have it play from your Google Play Movies library.

A long time coming

What makes the announcement a little strange, or at least a little late, is the fact that Google Home launched with the ability to fulfill these sort of commands from third-party services from the start.

As soon as Google Home launched it was able to play movies and shows from Netflix to a Chromecast with just a voice command input, with the likes of HBO Go following shortly afterward. So, for a first party app to only just be getting similar support seems a bit of an oversight from Google.

With little else hardware-related revealed at Google I/O, it's a small but appreciated new feature for Google Homeowners – especially with Amazon's Echo devices and Apple's Homepod bringing some worthy competition to the table.

More New TechRadar

Gaana and Saavn, two popular streaming services of Indian content in the country, will now be available on Google Home and Google Home Mini. The news comes smack in the middle of Google’s reveal of its ambitious plans for expanding into the Indian market and the upcoming Google launch on April 10.

Google Home users will also have the option of setting either, Gaana or Saavn, as their default streaming service. The reason for the partnership is probably the fact that a lot of content that’s available on the local streaming services, isn’t available on Google’s default application, Play Music. This is especially true for indie and regional content. 

A user on Reddit noticed the availability of Gaana and Saavn on the list of available music services for Google.

Smart home products haven’t quite taken the nation by storm, but Amazon’s Echo speakers are already in the market equipped with skills tailored for the Indian user. Amazon has its own music streaming service, Prime Music, which already features localized and regional music content. It has deals with some of the leading music labels in India such as Sony Music, T-Series, Zee Music, Tips, Saregama, and Times Music among others. 

Amazon’s a step ahead of Google with respect to Saavn since its Echo devices come pre-enabled with the service. 

Though Google first launched the Google Home speaker in 2016 but hasn’t launched anything from that series in India, yet. However, their smartphones have been on the market for a while now and been appreciated by the users. 

Related product: Google Home

Final Verdict:

☆☆☆☆☆

Both wildly intelligent and supremely versatile in the ways in which it can be used, Google Home is evolving quickly compared to the Amazon Echo but It still has a ways to go to catch up – starting, perhaps, with better integration with Google’s own services. It's not there yet, but it has real potential to one day be the smart home command center Google wants it to be.

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