Tag Archives: smart home trends

Consumers Not Afraid to Try Self-Monitored Home Security

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In our ongoing effort to highlight business opportunities for CDG clients, we turn our attention to home security. This service is one that many of our clients already offer, while others are exploring it.

Within the home security market, consumers have a growing number of options, including buying the service from their broadband provider. But as recent research from Parks Associates points out, consumers also have the ability to self-install and self-monitor their home security systems. Parks Associations expects to see 2 million broadband households with self-monitored home security by the end of the year.

The research firm’s report, “Home Security Market Sizing and Forecasts,” found that 23 percent of self-monitored systems are fee-based. This group averaged $9 per month in fees in 2019. Twenty-two percent also included home control. Parks found that by 2024, average monthly fees will drop to $8.50 and 34% will have home control add-on services.

“While smart home features may tip the scales towards acquisition, overall market drivers and inhibitors for home security are roughly the same as they have been for many years,” Dina Abdelrazik, Parks Associates’ Senior Analyst, said in a press release. “Parks Associates forecasts roughly 30% of US broadband households will have a security system by 2024, so the industry is in need of business models that can tap into the roughly 70% of households without a security system.”

Other findings from the report:

  • Roughly 86% of US households now have fixed broadband capability; these are the households of strong interest for technology product and service providers.
  • Among the 27% of broadband households with security, 23% or 23.88M report having professional monitoring.
  • The majority of self-monitored security systems, 75%, are self-installed.  

The report points to artificial intelligence and machine learning as innovations that could create “new and alternative approaches to home security systems and monitoring.” This approach could dramatically improve the value of these services by reducing false alarms, sensing anomalous activity, performing video analytics and conducting video verification and surveillance.

At a higher level, the smart house category is driving acceptance of home security systems. The main advance is lower costs to entry. Smart homes make security simply one of multiple services available. In the past, home security was a standalone service that required separate wiring and technology.  

Video Entertainment Devices helping to Drive Smart Home Device Adoption

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As CDG clients plot their broadband future, the smart home is an important category to understand. Customers are increasingly buying and installing smart devices in their home and research from IDC reveals the trend is accelerating, and video entertainment devices from Fire TV, Roku, and others are key to this trend.

IDC now forecasts a 23.5% growth rate this year for smart home devices amounting to nearly 815 million device shipments.

By 2023, annual shipments will be more than 1.39 billion, representing a a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.4%, according to the IDC forecast.

The U.S. will have the largest share of smart home device shipments globally through 2023, though CAGR will be higher elsewhere, according to IDC. U.S. shipments will grow at a 9.5 CAGR over the forecast period, putting total U.S. shipments at 560 million units in 2023.

“Content and services are going be at the forefront for the smart home market as video entertainment products such as the Fire TV or Chromecast will serve as an on-ramp for consumers entering the world of connected home products,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobile Device Trackers, in a prepared statement. 

Driving smart home equipment shipments will be video entertainment devices, which are expected to comprise 29.9% of all shipments in 2023, thanks to falling prices and advanced functionality, including 8K, higher refresh rates, HDR, larger sizes, and integration with smart assistants and streaming platforms.

Right behind video entertainment devices will be home monitoring/security devices like smart cameras and smart locks, which IDC expects will account for 22.1% of the shipments in 2023 with a CAGR of 18.4%.

However, smart speakers and displays are nearing their peaks, and will have 8.7% year-over-year growth in 2022 and 4.7% in 2023.