According to ABI Research, demand for smart home devices and systems continued to soar over the past six months creating the bedrock for a coming wave of new smart home services and revenue streams. Shipments of smart home devices are expected to reach 252 million units by the end of 2018, up more than 55% from 2017. The double-digit, year-over-year growth is just the beginning of a smart home market that will see 467 million smart home device shipments in 2023, ABI says.
The past few years have brought a wealth of investment into smart home adoption.
"Now, more than 70 million homes worldwide have one or more smart home devices," said Jonathan Collins, research director at ABI. "These devices and their continued adoption are a beachhead for smart home players to position themselves as key partners for new and existing home services and, in turn, draw new revenues from their smart home investment."
During the past 12 months, smart home entrants have begun extending the services available to their smart home subscribers. For example, Google's Nest partnered with Monitronics/Brinks to deliver monitored security, while Samsung's SmartThings announced a similar partnership with ADT. While monitored security had been an early starting point for broader smart home adoption, especially in the United States, now smart home is as likely to draw in new monitored security subscribers. The key difference is the smart home players' new position at the heart of the new service.
In another emerging example, this past year, after years of anemic support and adoption, smart appliances gained traction; smart appliance shipments in 2018 are expected to reach more than 15 million appliances shipped worldwide, more than double last year's number. Smart appliance manufacturers, too, are looking to place themselves at the heart of previously distinct home revenue streams, including grocery and consumable reordering.
"Key smart home protagonists, including Amazon, Apple, Google, and Samsung, have turned to smart home devices to expand and strengthen their existing core revenue streams. Increasingly, these and other smart home players will leverage their smart home customer relationships in order to become the gatekeeper for a host of industries looking to connect with consumers in those homes," said Collins.