Smart home adoption to benefit security

DALLAS—Market research firm Parks Associates, based here, is predicting that an increase in smart home controllers will help drive the increased adoption of home security systems—moving the penetration rate of home security systems past the 20 percent mark up to 26 percent by 2020.

Parks Associates estimates that by 2020 more than 50 percent of U.S. broadband households will have a smart home controller, up from 13 percent in 2015, and 24 percent will have an IP camera, up from just under 10 percent in 2015.

“The addition of home controls, interactive services, as well as the addition of new players, expand the value proposition and attract new people to the security market,” Tom Kerber, Parks Associates' director of research, told Security Systems News. “That is driving awareness and interest, and the security market will continue to see steady growth through 2020.”

Parks estimates that the number of households with home security will top 30 million by 2019, up from 22.5 million in 2015, with the majority of systems being professionally monitored.

Contributing to this increase are companies such as Samsung, which are beginning to embed smart home controllers into their consumer entertainment products, such as smart TVs and smart appliances, driving more interest from consumers.

“Up to this point the security industry is the leading channel for the smart home controls, but with Samsung embedding smart controllers into their products, that is going to drive significant numbers into the market,” he said. “So the security industry continues on its growth trajectory in terms of being a significant contributor and primary driver to this point, but this idea of embedding smart home controllers into other products is really going to drive these numbers in the long term.”

In addition to the dramatic increase in smart home controllers, unit sales of IP cameras will reach nearly 6 million in 2016, including 3.2 million first-time sales. By 2017, the number of replacement or additional IP camera sales will exceed the number of first-time sales, according to Parks.

“If you look at the numbers, growth has more than doubled since the end of 2015, when we were was just under 10 percent for IP cameras,” said Kerber, who noted that lower price points, better cameras and increased capabilities and analytics are helping to drive adoption of video in and outside the home.

The rise in interest in self-installed systems is also having a positive impact on the security industry, Kerber noted.

“Another survey that we conducted recently was trying to understand the impact of a lower cost system for those who don't have a system currently and how that may impact the market,” he explained. “If you look at the numbers, the adoption of these systems drives and expands the market from its current base. There are many dealers that are including self-installed systems into their portfolio, so the security market will continue to grow from that as well.”