IHS: More security systems in homes in next four years

The research group IHS believes—as others have predicted—that the penetration rate of home security systems in North America will rise in the next few years.

That rate has been stuck at 20 percent for the past couple of decades, but many have predicted that the “new entrants” into the industry, cablecos and telecoms, through their advertising and other efforts—will help finally move the needle on that particular statistic. IHS has jumped on that bandwagon in is its newly released report, “The World Maker for Intruder Alarms–2013 Edition.”

In a news release, IHS says that there is “realistic momentum with the growing trend to combine home automation and home security systems, on a single platform.”

The report says that “the residential sector accounted for 40.7 percent of the $2.7 billion global intruder alarm market in 2012, and is forecast to be one of the fastest-growing verticals with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 5.3 percent from 2012 to 2017.”

In a statement, Adi Pavlovic, analyst for access control, fire and security at IHS “Home-management integration is gaining the most popularity in North America, which will increase the penetration rate of intruder alarm products into the residential sector. Europe also may not be too far behind, as energy-management features are making their way into more homes every year. Deployment in Asia, however, is expected to be the slowest due to its large multifamily-apartment culture and the absence of professional monitoring services.”

The story is different on the commercial side, according to IHS. “While the trend to integration is becoming popular in single-family homes, its progress in the commercial sector continues to be slow.” The research group blames the “lack of unified legislation across each technology platform” for the stagnation it sees in the commercial side, noting that  regions “with more lenient regulations, such as the Middle East, benefit from having the opportunity to integrate multiple systems into a single solution. Such an approach is not only more convenient, but also saves time and lowers costs by working with just one installer.”

IHS advises manufacturers “interested in integrated solutions should continue to focus on the residential market while integration in commercial applications remains sluggish, as the industry as a whole awaits standardization.”