Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Residential Security: Beyond the Walled Garden

For the independent security dealer, all of these changing customer and technology profiles is already happening. The appeal of the walled garden’s closed system is convenience and usability; however, that point of distinction is being eroded by those same factors.

Parks Associates recently mapped the smart home’s competitive landscape by looking for cues and harbingers in user reviews. What Parks’ Tom Kerber found was that walled garden automation was already showing signs of dying off.

“The breadth of [open] platforms is much more substantial,” Kerber says. “It will be hard to maintain a [vertically integrated] approach, or even, for that matter, a highly curated approach, when a very open approach can provide a similar user experience and provide much more access…to whatever product you may have or want to own.”

If there’s a key takeaway from the Parks Associates study for your purposes, it is this: The move from vertically integrated to open “could happen relatively quickly,” according to Kerber. “Our recommendation to smart home platform providers, as well as service providers, is to plan for that eventuality.”

This means security dealers may need to consider offering a broader range of products, he adds.

From the article "Residential Security: Beyond the Walled Garden" by Shawn Welsh.

Previously In The News

Tech Companies Waging Big Battle Of The Bots

In order for a virtual helpmate to run your life, it needs to engage with the providers of all the services you rely on, from your calendar app to your Uber ride. Those providers must either partner w...

No. 1 reason we buy smart devices? They promise convenience

Smart locks and smart lights you control from your phone promise to make your life easier — and that's why most people buy them: to simplify their daily tasks. Nearly half of all consumers who purchas...

Virtual reality headsets only owned by 8% of U.S. broadband users

Only about one-quarter are even familiar with what a VR headset is, according to a new report from Parks Associates called "Virtual Reality: The Evolving Ecosystem." A key problem may be with the qual...

One in three smart home owners control them through a network, like Alexa

More people are buying smart home devices, and connecting them through platforms or systems like smart speakers and hubs. So says a new report from Parks Associates which found that 35 percent of smar...