Parks Associates workshop at BUILDER’s Housing Leadership Summit addresses impact of smart home technology on new home construction  

New research from Parks Associates shows the percentage of smart home device owners who use a smart speaker to control their connected products has catapulted from 17% in 2017 to 37% at the end of 2018. The leading smart home technology research firm will host a workshop at the BUILDER’s Housing Leadership Summit featuring new consumer data and insights on builder strategies to leverage connected technology to deliver innovative housing solutions. The workshop, “Being Smart About Smart Homes,” will take place May 14, 2019, 10:50 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. at the Ritz Carlton Laguna in Niguel, CA, with speakers from Shea Homes, Brookfield Residential, and PulteGroup.

“There are 33 million broadband households that own at least one connected device,” said Brad Russell, Director, Connected Home, Parks Associates. “Adoption of smart speakers has spiked, with 36% of US broadband households owning at least one at the beginning of 2019. We are seeing the ripple effect from these devices as voices is quickly becoming a common method for smart home consumers to interact with their devices. Builders have a variety of strategies available to them that leverage new technologies, from offering smart home-ready models, to deploying point solutions with voice control, or complete systems with control hubs, which bring opportunities for new revenues and differentiation from competitors.”

The workshop will address consumer adoption and demand, home buyer preferences, and new business models emerging to capture the value of the data from IoT devices to help create new service revenues. The research firm estimates annual sales of all connected home devices will increase to 442 million units by 2020. 

Russell will moderate the sessions featuring the following speakers:

• Tony Callahan, VP, National Purchasing, Shea Homes
• Tammy Schneider, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Brookfield Residential
• Diahann Young, Director Digital Platforms & Innovation, PulteGroup
   

“Today’s homebuyers are looking for connected devices that improve the functionality of their home. Devices to remotely adjust the temperature in their home, check to see if they left their garage door open, turn lights on and off when they are gone, see who is at the front door when they are not home, etc.,” said Tony Callahan, VP, National Purchasing, Shea Homes.“As an industry we need to meet customer requirements and provide connected devices that enhance the homebuyer experience.”

 “It is important to start simple, start with high value to consumer and leave room for homeowner flexibility,” said Diahann Young, Director Digital Platforms & Innovation, PulteGroup. “We are at the beginning of a long smart home journey. Leaving room for the homeowner to add products they value, and products that have not been invented yet, throughout the life of the home is the approach we believe is correct.”

Parks Associates is a supporter of BUILDER’s Housing Leadership Summit, a place where leaders turn to learn, focusing on how single-family housing’s most important enterprises can shape their future. For more information, visit housingleadershipsummit.com.

To schedule an interview with an analyst or to request specific research data, please contact Sherrelle Lewis at sherrelle.lewis@parksassociates.com, 972-996-0214.

About Parks Associates

Parks Associates, a woman-founded and certified business, is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates provides business intelligence and research services through its proprietary methodologies developed over decades, including quarterly surveys of 10,000 internet households.

The company's expertise crosses many industries: home security and smart home, streaming video, broadband and pay-TV services, digital media and platforms, gaming, Wi-Fi and home networks, connected health, support, consumer electronics, home control systems, energy management, and tech solutions for the multi-dwelling (MDU), small-to-medium business (SMB), and commercial building markets.

Each year, Parks Associates brings thousands of leaders together for its webinars and annual events. The firm hosts the annual executive research and strategy conferences CONNECTIONS™, Connected Health Summit, Smart Energy Summit, Smart Spaces, and Future of Video. https://www.parksassociates.com

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