For those of you who have been in the broadband industry for a while, you know the siren song of the smart home has been sung for at least a couple decades now. The massive promises of offering such services to subscribers in a widespread way is something high-speed data providers have kept an eye toward, but consumers’ familiarity with the technology has proven a sticking point. Overall awareness and sales of the Internet of Things product options for the home environment continue to ramp up, according to recent analysis, but an interesting point in the research is that product owners may not necessarily have those devices integrated into a smart home system.
Parks Associates has released new research showing roughly one-third of U.S. broadband households report they are familiar with smart home devices. In addition, more consumers see value in smart home devices, including smart door locks, video doorbells, and networked cameras, than are familiar with the products, indicating a “robust opportunity for broader adoption and usage,” the research firm predicts.
“More than one-fourth of households own at least one smart product, but only 12 percent own a smart home system,” Tom Kerber, director of IoT strategy at Parks Associates, notes.
The company’s “Smart Home: Quest for Compelling Use Cases” study says that nearly 70 percent of smart product owners have a device that is not connected to a smart home system and only 35 percent of smart product owners have the product integrated into a smart home system.
In related research, a recent ReportLinker survey of more than 500 respondents representative of the general U.S. population found 41 percent reported already owning smart home devices, with an average of 3.4 per home. Favorite products included connected appliances (20 percent), thermostats (16 percent), security (12 percent), and lighting solutions (10 percent). More than a third of respondents who own smart home devices said the gadgets make their lives easier, while 27 percent also mentioned savings on their energy bills as a reason to own. More on this topic is available in the Wireless Week article here.
Parks Associates upcoming Connections conference will address how service providers, product developers, and manufacturers can adapt their strategies to sell more smart home options, both as part of the system sale and post-installation. That event is set for May 23-25 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, and more information is available here.
