Smart home speaker sales surged in the third quarter and Amazon.com Inc. increased its lead in the market.

According to figures today from Canalys, in the quarter overall smart speaker sales grew 44.9% from the same quarter in 2018.

Amazon held a 36.6% share of the market, up from 31.9% a year ago. Amazon smart speaker shipments grew 65.9% over the same time period, to 10.4 million units.

Although Amazon increased its lead in the market, those behind it are in an nearly even battle for market share.

Google LLC, once the clear second place leader in the market, lost market share, with sales dropping 40.1%, to 3.5 million units in the third quarter, placing it in fourth place with a 12.3% market share. Chinese companies now make up the rest of the list. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. sits in second place after shipping 3.9 million units, up 77.6% for a 13.6% market share.

Baidu Inc. pipped Google for third place, shipping 3.7 million units in the quarter, up almost fourfold from a year ago for a 13.1% market share. Xiaomi Corp. rounded out the top five, shipping 3.4 million units, up 77% for a 12% market share. Other brands accounted for 3.6 million units, 12.5% of the market.

During the quarter the fastest-growing segment was devices with smart displays, crossing 20% of all smart home devices sold, up sixfold year-over-year, to 6.3 million units.

“The Echo Show 5 smart display contributed significantly to Amazon’s success in Q3, making up 16% of Amazon’s overall global shipments and it became the best shipping smart display of all the brands” Canalys research analyst Cynthia Chen said. “Despite smart displays gaining importance in vendor’s strategies, consumer price sensitivity and pragmatic use cases remain key challenges to be solved.”

Canalys said lower-priced devices are vital growth drivers for the forthcoming fourth-quarter shopping season. Amazon dominated the fourth quarter last year. But with a growing interest in the devices and an installed user base estimated to be slightly over 200 million units by the end of this year, there’s still plenty of room for growth.

Photo: mastermaq/Flickr