About one in four households have a smart speaker hanging out in the background, ready and waiting to do our bidding if we'll just say the word.
According to Nielsen's MediaTech Trender survey, 24% of homes owned a smart speaker device in the second quarter of 2018, up from 22% in the first quarter. Of the U.S. homes that have a smart speaker, four in 10 have more than one device.
The trend is new and growing - 62% of smart speaker owners first started using the device within the last six months, with 45% planning to purchase more devices for their home, according to Nielsen.
The Echo Studio high-fidelity smart speaker with 3D audio and Alexa is a new take on this trend, delivering immersive sound that senses the acoustics of any space. The gadget, priced at about $200, can act as an intercom, stream music and news, and answer pretty much any questions you can conjure. Synced up to the right devices, Echo Studio can also control your space, from dimming the lights to locking the doors.
But even with futuristic, innovative services at their fingertips, smart speaker users still overwhelmingly use their devices to listen to audio, according to Nielsen. Nearly all (90%) say they listen to music on the speaker in a typical week, while 68% listen to news.