"Internet of Things" articles

Affordability is now the key to the smart home. New Parks Associates research shows that affordability has become the leading purchase consideration for smart home device purchase intenders. More than half (51%) of purchase intenders rank affordability as a top 3 purchase consideration, beating product reviews (31%) and data privacy/security efforts (29%). Affordability concerns have also become the leading purchase inhibitor among non-owners and non-intenders. Nearly half (44%) of...

The breadth of connected products in consumers’ lives continues to expand year-over-year. Households with smart home devices now have an average of six smart home devices , and ownership of any connected device (10.5 per household) continues to increase each year. Market players are now looking beyond established smart home devices like smart thermostats and networked cameras to add new and emerging products to their smart home offerings. Products like smart water leak detectors,...

Connectivity in the home and the addition of connected devices continues to expand year-over-year. These products provide an increased level of convenience for consumers through home automation and home security applications, energy management and energy efficiency services, and the ability to control and monitor the home remotely. Smart thermostats have been around since the early 2000s; however, the introduction of the Nest Learning Thermostat in 2011 brought a greater level of...

Home builders are traditionally risk averse when it comes to adding new technologies in their homes. However, home builders can be an effective channel to introduce smart home products and services to a broad range of customers, including those that are not traditionally tech enthusiasts. Builders across the country convened in Irving last week for Builder Connections, hosted by Hanley Wood, to hear insights on consumer demand for smart home products and services and trends impacting...

The recent rise of insurtechs has spurred modernization in the fundamentals of insurance, including policy creation, underwriting, and claims management. Insurtechs, such as Hippo and Lemonade, have implemented AI and data analytics to provide quick and accurate quotes to their customers while also decreasing their own operating costs. Such innovation has disrupted the traditional insurance industry and has helped alter underlying business models of legacy companies, forcing them to...

One of our mantras at Parks Associates is that many smart home device manufacturers need to strengthen their value propositions in order to win-over the mass market consumer and justify the higher price of connected products. In short, offer consumers more for more, more for less, or at least more for the same cost as competitors. The Yardian (a portmanteau, or mash-up, of “yard” and “guardian”) by Aeon Matrix is a smart irrigation controller that beefs up its...

Smart home device ownership tripled between 2014 and 2018, and households utilizing smart home technology now own an average of six devices. As the number of connected devices in the household increases, so does the consumer’s risk of exposure to a data privacy breach. That risk is amplified by devices like smart speakers with voice assistants (Amazon Echo, Google Home, etc.), which collect massive troves of data, while device manufacturers potentially harness that data without...

The smart home starts at the front door, with devices like smart door locks, networked cameras, smart garage door openers, and video doorbells representing not only a foundation for security solutions but also access points for a future world of services, including in-home and in-garage delivery, home rental solutions, pet and cleaning services, and much more. Parks Associates research shows video doorbells lead in adoption among the three primary access control devices. At the...