Google is putting a dent into Amazon's share of the smart speaker market, and Canalys even says Google Home now has the lead.



Amazon dominated the market early by introducing several iterations of the Amazon Echo, which can be used to tell users about the weather and news, or even place deliveries. Google entered the market with Google Home -- also available in different models -- and Apple later followed with the HomePod.

Canalys said on Wednesday that smart speakers are the fastest growing consumer tech segment and that Google Home beat the Amazon Echo in shipments for the first time ever in the first quarter of 2018. Canalys said Google shipped 3.2 million Google Home units to Amazon's 2.5 million Echo shipments.

The figures are different from estimates Strategy Analytics published earlier this month. Strategy Analytics still showed that Google made a big dent in Amazon Echo market share, but said Amazon shipped 4 million units while Google shipped 2.4 million Google Homes. Still, that firm noted that Google's market share had doubled from the previous year.

The takeaway: there's no clear winner yet, but Google's gaining steam on Amazon quickly. Both research firms said China's a big growth area.