A Q1 2018 report from Publicis Media echoed Neuman's sentiment. "Voice represents a logical next step in the evolution of how we interact with information. It’s more natural than using a touchpad or keyboard, takes less brain power, and creates even more opportunity for tech to move further into the background and reduce our reliance on screens,” the report authors wrote.
Voice tech is ready for its time in the spotlight too, mostly thanks to advances in natural language processing by leaders like Google and Microsoft. “Just three or four years ago, you’d see a lot of search results that weren’t what you were looking for. Now there’s a lot more confidence. It has accelerated rapidly in the last year or so, especially to pick up dialects,” said Susan Panico, senior vice president of strategy solutions at internet radio firm Pandora.
Expect Growth in 2019
Although AirPods aren't true smart headphones under eMarketer's definition, their runaway success has opened the door for true hearables and helped acclimate consumers to wearing a device in their ears rather than looking at their screens. “AirPods changed the way I take phone calls and listen to music and audiobooks,” said Ben Gaddis, president of T3. “The simplicity of being able to pull them out or put them in and have music immediately play has changed my behavior.”
CCS Insight, which defines hearables as ear-based wearable devices that provide smart functions beyond music, forecast that shipments of hearables worldwide rose to 6 million in 2018 from 2 million in 2017.
And in a Gartner forecast from November 2018, ear-worn devices were estimated to overtake worldwide shipments of smartwatches by 2022, and rise to 158.43 million units compared with 115.20 million smartwatches.
Reporting by Fast Company indicates that Google, Amazon and Microsoft are all interested in launching hearable products. Bloomberg also reported last February that in 2019, Apple will release upgraded AirPods that can be activated by saying “Hey, Siri.” Qualcomm, too, introduced its first chips specifically for hearables this year, and according to Fast Company, other chip makers will soon follow suit.