[Trendpaper] mm1 Trendpaper: “Smart Home Trends and Potentials 2018”
Der Trendbericht beschreibt die Marktentwicklung in Deutschland und weltweit, stellt Kundenerwartungen dar und liefert eine Übersicht aktueller Trends im Smart Home Markt.
Here is a short extract of the Trend Paper which was created by experts of the mm1 Consumer IoT Practice:
Market development:
Despite positive development in various market areas, a lot of suppliers say that the market of “All-in-One” smart home solution is still running behind its expectations. “The development of Google’s search queries show a strong rising consumer interest in smart home since 2013, but Germany is strongly legging behind in an international comparison“, says David B. Hoffmann, Managing Partner at mm1 and director of the mm1 Consumer IoT Practice. Until 2021 analysts predict an adaption rate of 35% in Germany compared to approximately 60% of smart home households in the United States.
Customer- / Purchasing behavior:
In the first place the reason for the rejection of smart home services are the costs, missing knowledge and concern of data security. Particularly popular are applications which bring an improvement of security (e.g. security with indoor and outdoor cameras) and comfort (e.g. light and temperature control). Since 2015 the market of so-called ‘Point Solutions’ and the demand of such sharp solutions is increasing significantly. But customers also have the wish of complete systems out of one hand, that’s why it is easy for providers to expand their product portfolio continually, scoop established customers and develop new segments. The French smart home manufacturer Netatmo started its market entry with a ‘one product company’ strategy in 2011 and is now one of the leading player in the connected home market with a wide range of different application areas (inter alia security and climate control).
Current trends:
Because of the market victory of the so-called ‘point solutions’, which are focusing on strict separable tasks (e.g. switching light on/off) more and more providers enter the market. Cheap prices and attractive user experiences will be the critical success factor in the next years. For example, since April 2017 IKEA is offering a package with two LED-lamps, remote control, Gateway and Smartphone App for 75 Euro with the name “Trådfri”. Every additional ZigBee LED lamp with dimming function costs only 9,99 Euro – that are competitive prices compared to Philips Hue and Osram Lithify (19,99 Euro). Besides that, the big trend of the year are smart assistants: “The smart assistants from Apple and Google are already used in mobile devices since years, with its introduction of Echo and the integrated voice assistant Alexa, Amazon started the trend of voice assistants for use in homes.” stressed Marcel Kubon, Senior Consultant at mm1 and expert of Consumer IoT. Beside the major product offensive of the leading players Amazon and Google, also the Telekom announced that they are working on a smart speaker which will be released in 2018. Additionally, the number of products which support smart assistant is increasing rapidly. That’s why the fight for the connected home market will be aggravated immensely in the next years.
The Trend Paper “Smart Home Trends and Potentials 2018” shows also the chances of the Blockchain technologies for smart home, the growing battle of (radio) standards, as well as the actual challenges and critical success factors of the industry.
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