Parks Associates addresses key trends at Summit

LAS VEGAS—Leading smart home and consumer IoT industry executives came together here for Parks Associates' CONNECTIONS Summit on Jan. 8, the first day of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The summit featured multiple sessions addressing key trends, challenges and opportunities within residential security and the smart home.

“It is an exciting time for the industry,” Elizabeth Parks, president, Parks Associates, said in the press release. “There are major advances in technology and disruptions with new business models, partnerships, and new players in the smart home market. CES is a great launch-pad for the industry each year, and we look forward to hearing from our speakers and sharing new consumer research and insights on the smart home market.”

The research firm also unveiled some key data at the summit, including findings that U.S. broadband households own an average of more than 10 connected devices, spurred in part by the introduction of voice controls through smart speakers with voice assistants from tech giants Amazon and Google.

Parks estimates unit sales of smart speakers with voice assistants in the U.S. will reach nearly 65 million by 2022. Among other key devices, global unit sales of smart TVs will exceed 130 million by 2022, and adoption of smart video doorbells will exceed 12 percent of U.S. broadband households in 2020.

Some other recent findings from the firm include:
• 63 percent of households with a security system own a smart home device.
• 25 percent of U.S. broadband households plan to buy a smart video doorbell in 2019.
• More than 40 percent of U.S. broadband households find the smart home concept appealing for their home.
• 50 percent of consumers 50 and older very interested in emergency panic button service or home emergency system.
• Nearly one in three U.S. broadband households own a smart speaker with voice assistant.

Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz, a research director with the IBM Institute for Business Value who spoke at the Summit, said, "There's a fine line between smart homes that empower and engage consumers, and it is established one consumer at a time. While we have smart devices, we don't yet have very smart homes, and the question is how much are consumers and companies willing to trade to have one.”

She continued, “Our research indicates that consumers expect benefits that they don't see in the marketplace. Using IoT and AI as efficiency and risk tools aren't enough. Yet interactions must avoid going over that line. It's no wonder so few pilots move into scalable launch. Yet there are ways to move forward that engage and delight."

The CONNECTIONS Summit is an annual research and industry event hosted by international research firm Parks Associates at CES in Las Vegas.