On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

The global smart speaker market reaches a new high in 2019, Strategy Analytics reports, as shipments total 146.9 million units-- a 70% increase over 2018, with Amazon remaining squarely in the lead, if with a decline in market share.

According to the analyst, Amazon holds 26.2% of the 2019 market, down from 33.7% in 2018. Google remains in 2nd place with 20.3% share, down from 25.9% in 2018, with both Amazon and Google seeing "slight" decline in Europe and the US, the result of customers looking to other brands to fulfill their smart speaker needs. On the other hand, Chinese vendors Baidu, Alibaba and Xiaomi all see increases in share, while Apple remains in 6th place with 4.7% share.

Another record for 2019 involves Q4 2019 sales reaching 55.7m units, the highest quarterly sales figure as per Strategy Analytics. Driving such numbers are strong holiday sales in Europe and the US, as well as the recovery of the Google smart speaker business following new product introductions, improved component supply and strong promotional activity.

Home automation vendor Wyze looks to combine wearables and smart home with the Wyze Band, a simple-looking fitness tracker featuring a built-in microphone, allowing use of the Alexa voice assistant.

As the company puts it, "Wyze Band will allow you to control Wyze devices with a tap and using Alexa Built-in, any number of Alexa-enabled devices." Thus, the Wyze Band effectively acts as a hub for the Wyze smart home featuring not only Alexa-enabled voice control but also a touchscreen. A Wyze video shows the GUI in question, with graphical shortcuts allowing one to toggle between different devices and functionality.

A recently published Apple patent describes a modular wall unit system able to automatically configure smart homes and buildings, allowing customers to painlessly add and remove connected devices as they require.

Simply named the "Modular Wall Unit System," the patent points out smart home configuration involves multiple challenges. After all, many connected devices from different vendors might not be compatible, since they involve different connection and communication protocols. And even if they are compatible, the various hardware and software configurations, not to mention system setup, can prove daunting to the average customer.

Qualcomm announces a 3rd generation 5G modem-to-antenna solution-- the Snapdragon X60 modem-RF system, the first according to the company to feature 5-nanometer 5G baseband and support spectrum aggregation across all key 5G bands and combination.

As a result, the Snapdragon X60 supports mmWave and sub-6 using frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD), allowing smartphones to uplift 5G performance using fragment spectrum assets. Such capabilities, Qualcomm says, make it a solution able to enhance performance and capacity for operators worldwide while increasing average 5G speeds in mobile devices.