#smart-speakers

#smart-speakers

Trade organization RAJAR, which measures UK radio usage, has released its Q4 2025 data. The headline takeaway tells us that 50 million adults (86% of the adults UK population) listens to the radio at least weekly. That usage adds up to just over one billion listening hours. On a per-listener basis, the average person hears 20-30 hours of live radio per week. These numbers do not necessarily indicate turning on an analog radio. Forty-four million 15+ UK'ers use a digitally enabled platform each week.

Starting with the Echo Dot Max, it features a dual-driver design consisting of a woofer and a tweeter. The new design integrated the speaker directly into the device housing instead of a separate module, which doubles the internal air space for fuller sound. The device can also tune the sound to your surrounding and Amazon claims it can produce 3x the bass of the 5th gen Echo Dot.

The Echo Pop and Echo Dot are Amazon's entry-level smart speakers, and both are currently on sale ahead of Amazon's October Prime Day (aka Prime Big Deal Days), which officially kicks off on October 7th. Both speakers are currently discounted to their lowest prices since the middle of June, which means they're beating their summer Prime Day prices. Both speakers are screen-free, and allow you to use Amazon Alexa to control compatible smart home devices, set timers, and ask for information about the news, weather, and other goings-on.

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According to his company's survey work, 2021 was the plateau year for smart speakers. In that year nearly a third of weekly podcast consumers reported listening via smart speaker.