Smart-Home Devices Fuel Rising Residential Tide
Find out why no service providers are better positioned and more qualified to deliver desirable smart-home offerings to homeowners than security companies.
The growth rate of smart-home controller sales is even higher. Parks Associates forecasts the number of smart-home controllers to be sold with or for security systems in 2014 will equal 22% of all new security system controllers sold during the year. Not every household that acquires a new security controller will also acquire a smart-home controller. Nor does a security system controller sell every time a smart-home controller is added to a system.
Some households can add a smart home controller and devices without changing their security controller. Other households want professional security but do not want smart-home services. However, installations or upgrades for smart homes will increase as noted in Parks Associates’ forecast. This will occur even as the growth in sales of security systems flattens. In 2017, the number of smart-home controllers that will be added to or sold with security systems will increase to just less than 40%. The ancillary value offered by smart-home systems will be increasingly important.
RELATED: The Rebirth of Residential Sales
Adopters of Smart Devices Are Open to Monthly Fees
No more than 6% of all broadband households report owning any specific type of device except networked cameras. Networked cameras have been available for years; they have lower prices than in the past and are understood by more consumers than some other smart devices. More than one-half of the adopte
rs of smart-home features for their security systems acquired at least one camera. The average hovers at about 1.5 per household.
Beyond cameras, popular smart-home devices are lighting controllers and smart thermostats. Five percent of households with security systems report ownership of some smart-home features. These households represent about 40% of today’s smart home device-owning households. That edge and first position must be maintained by skilled sales practices and expanded device offerings.
Security providers hold the catbird seat today. To keep that position requires constant incremental improvement and expansion. The mass market at large does not want monthly fees. This limits the size of the market for professionally monitored security over time. However, those who have and intend to acquire a smart-home system and features over the next 12 months are open to monthly fees.
Now is the right time to reach those prospects. Today’s owners of smart-home devices are most likely to have acquired the devices as part of a home security system. That may hold for the next few years, but it will change unless security providers consistently market their value and service proficiently.
Imperative That Security Dealers Seize Market Share Now
Consumers who intend to purchase smart-home devices within the next two years follow the same pattern as past buyers for similar devices. No single device dominates (see Figure 3). Likewise, no single brand of device dominates. Instead, a cluster of benefits are desirable. Meeting that goal requires adding multiple devices. That translates to more complex installations using interoperable products. This provides a continuing advantage to security installers.
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