Parks Associates says 43% of respondents in U.S. broadband households are willing to purchase a smart home package. The research house says consumers in France, Germany, the UK, and Belgium value smart safety/security devices highest, including smoke and motion detectors.
However, ABI Research says lack of standards is hindering the growth and uptake of smart home technologies, with interoperability among largely proprietary technologies being a key challenge. The research house expects nearly 30% of North American households to have a managed smart home automation system installed by 2019, but selecting technologies and overcoming standard fragmentation continues to represent a sizable investment for service providers.
ABI believes tighter integration between set-top boxes and broadband gateways will not occur until some of the standards issues are addressed. In addition, there are regional variations with North American operators focused on home security and automation that provide peace of mind, while European operators have focused more intently on energy management. In Asia-Pacific, the driving force has been more blended but tended to focus on the smart home and making the user experience more efficient.