Voice control in the connected-home market will rapidly expand the adoption of such devices, according to the latest forecast from Park Associates.

Welcoming attendees to its 21^stannual Connections: The Premier Connected Home Conference, which begins today in San Francisco, Parks is forecasting U.S. consumers will buy more than 2.3 billion connected devices between 2015 and 2020, and those consumers “are showing strong preferences for voice as the interface for their devices. Companies in the smart-home, entertainment and connected-car ecosystems are pursuing partnerships that can add voice control to a variety of solutions in the connected home. Voice control is the top trend for 2017 in the IoT and smart home and a main focus of discussion at Connections,” said Elizabeth Parks, senior VP.

The new IoT forecasts were presented during the pre-show research workshops, with Parks analysts demonstrating that over 442 million connected consumer devices will be sold in the U.S. in 2020. These sales totals include connected entertainment, mobile, health and smart-home devices. Personal assistant devices, which include speakers with voice control such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home, are the fastest growing category, with a compound annual growth rate of 78.3 percent between 2015 and 2020.

“We’ve only scratched the surface of what the connected home can do for consumers and companies,” commented William Greene, product manager, energy services, at Nest Labs. “At Nest, we’ve learned that combining connected devices with simple, yet sophisticated, software can meet the connected consumer’s expectations for reliability and convenience while opening new opportunities for engagement. This enhanced engagement can benefit companies and precipitate revolutionary changes in verticals like energy utilities. Every connected consumer represents an opportunity for huge advancements in engagement strategy, operational efficiency, and the realization of shared benefits across industries and regions.”