Voice-based smart home solutions show the highest growth rate of 39%.The global smart home market will grow by nearly a third in 2018 compared with the previous year, according to a new study.That means manufacturers in the field will sell more than 640 million smart devices.Within four years, annual sales will reach 1.3 billion devices, especially as voice controls become increasingly popular with users.

The global smart home market is expected to grow 31 percent in 2018, with a total of 643.9 million smart home devices sold, according to market research firm IDC.Based on the average annual growth rate of over 20%, it is expected that as many as 1.3 billion smart devices will enter the home in 2022.This means that on average six people, regardless of age, will have one smart home device.

Smart speakers like the amazon Echo or Google HOME are the fastest-growing category, with a five-year growth rate of 39.1 percent, according to market researchers.While a record 100 million devices have been sold this year, sales of smart speakers are projected to reach 230 million within four years.Smart lighting, thermostats, walkie-talkies and security systems are also growing in popularity.

Amazon Echo, Google Assistant and ULE based products have driven the market growth

Due to the huge growth rate, smart speakers will become the third largest market in the smart home market as early as 2022.A growing number of vendors are developing products that are compatible with amazon Alexa or Google assistant.Smart voice assistants such as Siri, Cortana and Bixby are also growing in popularity.There are other solutions for voice-based smart home applications. For example, voice commands can be transmitted using ultra-low power (ULE) wireless standards, which means smart homes can eventually be controlled by voice commands.The advantages of ULE include that the standard is considered particularly secure and that smart home products certified by the ULE alliance or based on the HAN FUN protocol can be combined, regardless of the manufacturer.

Jitesh Ubrani, IDC’s senior research analyst for mobile device tracker, said:

“Many new devices, both inside and outside the home, now have voice assistants built in.These not only help increase the number of touchpoints available to end users, but also contribute to the healthy development of each assistant by expanding the reach and gaining insight into how, when and how users handle various tasks.