Parks Associates, together with the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), has released a new white paper, ‘Smart Home Evolution: Unlocking Value’. It explores the progress of the smart home, highlighting key milestones, emerging consumer demands, and the growing role of AI.
According to the white paper, 38% of buyers now identify as ‘early majority’, up from 20% six years ago. Since 2020, around 13 million new US Internet households entered the smart home market, growing the number of households that own a smart home device to 54 million.
This shift is key for reaching broader adoption of individual product categories and achieving greater efficiencies of scale, as new households have distinctly different expectations and needs from early smart home adopters.
“As the market has grown, the base of households owning smart home devices has expanded beyond tech enthusiasts to more practical users seeking lasting value and reasonable costs,” said Jennifer Kent, VP, Research, Parks Associates. “As the market moves into this next phase, new layers of value, including integrations/interoperability, intelligence, and the development of services, are needed.”
Other key findings show:
- Households with kids are smart home champions – 63% of households with kids own at least one smart home product compared to 37% of those without kids. Households with kids are more likely to recommend the products they own to others
- 52% of smart home device owners who set up a device themselves had difficulty at setup
- 55% of consumers in US Internet households find disaggregated energy insights appealing – that is, the amount of energy each device and appliance in their home consumes
- 65% of smart thermostat owners are willing to allow their smart devices and appliances to share data with each other to better optimise energy use
- 90% of businesses are using AI internally, and 79% are building AI into their consumer-facing products and services
“The smart home market is entering a new phase, one where trust, simplicity, and real-world value matters,” added Tobin Richardson, President and CEO, Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Consumers expect connected experiences to work effortlessly and intuitively together. Through collaborative standards like Matter and forward-looking ones like Aliro, the Alliance is helping the industry and our members unlock sustainable growth, enable meaningful experiences, and deliver on the promise of a more connected home.”
“Greater intelligence, ease of integration, adjacent service offerings, and quality of service will shape the market going forward and define the competitive edge,” said Kent.
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