This week, Jennifer Kent, Vice President of Research at Parks Associates, joined Fiber for Breakfast and shared insights into the latest trends and innovations shaping the smart home market. Parks Associates has been tracking and analyzing the home automation space for almost 40 years and is seeing some trends shift in how consumers are using this technology, what is happening in terms of competition, and how all of these connected devices impact Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and the broadband fiber services they offer or will offer to the home.

Showcasing a 10-year view, the average U.S. internet household has about 17 connected devices and according to Parks’ research about 45% of U.S. internet households now own at least one smart home device. 

Parks’ research shows that the usage of these devices has changed significantly over the last several years. In 2018 before the pandemic, about 60% of smart home device owners self-identified as innovators and were one of the first people to go out and buy new technology. 

Kent stated that there are clearly opportunities for ISPs beyond just being the legacy internet provider. Once they can get past just offering a “bundled service” there lies new value-added service types that could benefit from putting these services on fiber broadband networks like technical support monitoring, home security monitoring, cameras and sensors to offer more of a smart Wi-Fi experience. 

From the Fiber Broadband Association article, "The Smart Home in 2025: Outlook and Opportunities"