More than 50 percent of U.S. broadband households say they would pay $20 or more a month for a smart home service, according to a new report from research firm Parks Associates. However, security remains a major concern.
“Almost half of consumers rank privacy as their greatest concern about connecting devices to the Internet, and 40% have experienced a privacy or security problem with a connected device in the past year,” says Brad Russell, a research analyst with Parks Associates.
“This market trend is a significant barrier to IoT development, as data is key in expanding these solutions, and if consumer concerns prevent them from sharing data, many value propositions associated with the IoT will falter. At the workshop, we will examine strategies to incorporate more advanced security applications and the best ways to communicate these efforts to consumers.”
The Parks Associates survey found that more than half of broadband households consider a smart home system of $20 or month a “good value.”
There are already more than 26 million “smart” households with at least one device in the U.S., according to Parks Associates. That’s a 35 percent jump from early 2016. But “mass adoption” is still a challenge, according to Russel..
“The key challenge in today’s smart home market is to move adoption beyond the early market and achieve mass adoption,” Russell explained.
“We have seen recent improvements, with the adoption rate of smart home products increasing from 19% of U.S. broadband households at the end of 2015 to 26%. However, many obstacles and barriers still remain, including the need for apps that control all devices and innovations to extend smart capabilities to unconnected devices and create fully connected homes.”
