The global market for smart home devices is expected to grow strongly through 2023, according to a smart home devices forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC).The research firm predicts that the market will grow to 832.7 million shipments in 2019, 26.9% over the 2018 total. Additionally, double-digit growth is expected to continue with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.9% over the 2018-2023 forecast period. Nearly 1.6 billion devices will be shipped in 2023 as consumers adopt multiple devices within their homes and as global availability of products and services increases, researchers said.
Home monitoring, digital assistants and smart home lighting are expected to have the fastest growth over the five-year period.
“2018 was all about getting products into consumers’ homes and both Amazon and Google excelled at this through low-cost smart speakers and multiple bundles across device categories,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers, in a prepared statement. “However, 2019 will be more about tying the various devices together to form a more cohesive experience and more importantly, layering in additional services.”
“One important trend to watch is how smart assistants become integrated throughout the home,” said Ramon T. Llamas, research director for IDC’s Consumer IoT program, in a prepared statement. “Smart assistants will act as the point of contact with multiple smart home devices and essentially become the cornerstone of the smart home experience. Already we’ve been seeing that with smart speakers, and this will eventually move on to appliances, thermostats, and all sorts of video entertainment.”