This is impressive for two reasons. One is the number itself and the other is that Amazon was prepared to disclose the information as it prepares to square up to Google at CES in Las Vegas next week. 

According to SEO Tribunal, whose infographic we featured in Entering The Era Of Voice Power:

The most optimistic statistics claim that by the end of 2018 the number of smart speakers in use could reach 100 million.

but this claim lumped together Google Assistant and other players in the market.

The statement that more than 100 million devices with Alexa on board had been sold by the end of 2018 was reported by The Verge. It came from Amazon’s SVP of devices and services, Dave Limp who was interviewed by Dieter Bohn the publication's  Executive Editor.

Further details given in The Verge are

• more than 150 products with Alexa built in
  
  
• more than 28,000 smart home devices that work with Alexa made by more than 4,500 different manufacturers
  
  
• over 70,000 Alexa skills

The smallest Amazon Alexa device, the Echo Dot, has been a spectacular success over the 2018 holiday season. While he wouldn't give a number for the units sold Limp revealed that its sales had outstripped its most optimistic expectations. As anyone who has tried to buy the 3rd Generation Echo Dot at its promotional Black Friday price knows, Amazon only expects to fill orders in late January (and if you order now late February).

As well as being part of Amazon's own current and planned products, including a table lamp a microwave, a clock and a security camera Alexa is being integrated into a wide range of 3rd party products. The Alexa Connect Kit (ACK) which we reported on at the time of the launch of the latest Alexa products is still in invitation-only preview but presumably when it becomes widely available flood gates will be opened as more manufacturers see the opportunities offered by "ambient computing" - in which are devices are made to respond to sensors and to voice commands. 

So how can Amazon support the burden of over 100 million devices and increasing at a possibly exponential rate?

Over the Christmas period there were outages as its cloud servers were overloaded - will this become a common occurrence. And given  the relatively  low purchase price of Alexa devices, how can Amazon expect a long term profit? Yes Alexa makes it convenient to purchase products from Amazon but can this model really finance the servers required to run Alexa?

More Information

The Verge Exclusive

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Entering The Era Of Voice Power 

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