Industry report highlights the opportunities in healthcare, smart home, and connected cars for LPWAN

A new research report from Parks Associates finds the combination of low power, wide range, and other interesting features makes LPWAN (low-power wide-area networks) an ideal solution for consumer IoT applications. Opportunities for LPWAN in the Consumer IoT analyzes leading LPWAN technologies and their consumer use cases for healthcare wearables, smart home, asset/pet tracking, and connected car.

“There are multiple business cases where LPWAN can fit and improve the consumer experience or the provider’s bottom line,” said Elizabeth Parks, President, Parks Associates. “Most LPWAN deployments so far are in the enterprise sector, but early crossover use cases into the consumer sector include pet tracking and connected healthcare. For example, AT&T released its first LTE-M certified medical-grade smart watch in February 2019, which allows healthcare providers to provide health monitoring services to their consumers.”

Parks Associates Chart

Smart watches will serve as a strong entry point for LPWAN into the consumer market, as this form factor already has significant awareness and adoption among consumers—17% of US broadband households own a smart watch. The low-power aspect of LPWAN will help extend the battery life on smart watches, a key demand among smart watch owners, while still maintaining strong connectivity.

LPWAN use cases can then expand from these monitoring use cases to cover the home and car. The report examines current LPWAN standards, including Sigfox, LoRaWAN, LTE-M, NB-IoT, and WiFi HaLow, and analyzes their utility for smart home and consumer IoT applications.

“Growth in the LPWAN consumer market is slow today due to technology fragmentation and low market demand,” Parks said. “Nevertheless, open ecosystems and third-party development of LPWAN solutions and applications will drive the market forward.”

Opportunities for LPWAN in the Consumer IoT compares the strengths and weaknesses of LPWAN solutions and assesses how each solution may open opportunities for manufacturers and service providers.

For information on Opportunities for LPWAN in the Consumer IoT, contact sales@parksassociates.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 is a global research, consulting, and marketing firm with 40 years of experience delivering proprietary consumer data and industry insights for businesses. The firm produces market research reports, forecasts, surveys, and competitive business intelligence on connected consumer, small business, and commercial technologies and related business solutions. Parks Associates provides custom research, strategic consulting, and forward-looking analysis across connected home, small business, and commercial markets, including security, smart home, broadband, entertainment, energy, multifamily, smart buildings, connected health, and emerging AI-driven technologies.

Parks Associates supports industry growth through proprietary research, consulting, and executive networking and convenes thousands of leaders each year through its flagship conferences, including CONNECTIONS™, Connected Health Summit, Smart Energy Summit, Smart Spaces, and Future of Video. Learn more at https://www.parksassociates.com.

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