

Google's bid to catch up to Amazon in the nascent smart speaker market is gaining steam.

In a Friday post on Google's Keyword blog, head of product Rishi Chandra revealed that Google has sold more than one Home smart speaker device every second since October.

According to Business Insider's quick calculations, that's at least 6.8 million Home devices sold during the holiday season.

Google currently offers three Home devices — the original Home, the Home Max, and the Home Mini — but it didn't break out sales figures for the individual devices.

Smart speakers, which use voice recognition and virtual assistants to let users find information, order food and listen to music, have emerged as an important new computing platform that some observers believe could eventually replace smartphones.

$4 speakers

Both Google and Amazon cut prices sharply for their smart speakers over the holidays, in order to gain market share. By some estimates, the price cuts were so deep that the companies likely lost money on each sale.

Google reduced the price of its Mini from $49 to $29 during the holiday period. And retailer Walmart offered a $25 voucher for the device, which mean that consumers could essentially buy the puck-shaped Mini speakers for $4 each.

While Amazon — Google's main competitor in the smart speaker space — hasn't revealed exactly how many Echo devices it's sold, it pegged the number of its competing Echo Dot sales in the millions.

The strong sales of Google Home devices also came despite a rocky launch.

Before the Home Mini began shipping in October, one reviewer discovered that the device was quietly recording his conversations without his knowledge or consent. Google was forced to permanently disable a button on the top of the that let users activate voice recognition, stop an alarm, or pause or resume music.