Connected Home 2.0

Adoption cycle and smart home assistants

To drive adoption of these new technologies, companies need to focus their efforts on ‘the smart home assistants’; the central device or system which gives you control over the other smart devices in your home.

These products are fairly new to the market yet they are quickly becoming the vital infrastructure required for the modern, connected home. Our research demonstrates that consumers who purchase technology like this are more willing to invest in other, wider ranging devices in the home.

Companies that manufactures these ‘smart home assistants’ are able to benefit in two ways: compatibility and data ownership.

Compatibility - with third party devices, offering a seamless experience for consumers can be tricky. This is far easier to achieve for ‘smart home assistant’ manufacturers, with everything running smoother under one system.

Data ownership
Smart home assistants capture a wide range of data; creating detailed profiles of the user, often with information gathered from numerous connected devices. This allows services to be tailored and targeted to actual consumer needs. However, the use of this data could also raise questions with consumers.

Data privacy

With the introduction of GDPR and recent controversies in the news, data privacy is likely to become an ever increasing issue in the connected home space.

Alongside price (38%), data privacy concerns represent a significant barrier to adoption for consumers who do not already own smart technology (22%). Consumers are becoming ever more aware of the power of data and although companies use the data to offer tailored services and product upgrades, there are still concerns around security and how the data is used.

Although this is not as high on the agenda for people who already own smart technology, there are still a number of consumer (11%) for whom data privacy is a barrier.

Value & consumer expectations

Before making a purchase, only one in five expect to be positively impacted by a connected home device. But once purchased, consumers report much higher levels of actual consumer value - with positive impact ratings doubling or trebling, for example:

1. The perceived health benefits of a hub or assistant is rated as 13%, increasing to 44% after purchase, with comfort values almost doubling from 33% to 65%

2. Energy meters reported a pre-purchase impact value of 23% for comfort and 56% in financial terms, rising to 54% and 72% respectively once installed.

Traditional players are no longer able to win consumers hearts and loyalty by relying on traditional models and offering a standalone product. As there is a bigger shift towards customer experience, all companies must think more broadly around not only how they can innovate, but how they communicate this positive change effectively with their customers.

Upgrade cycles

Generally, over 40% of connected home device owners are expecting to upgrade their devices within the next two years (excluding smart meters). This strengthens for private renters, especially in home appliances, lighting, plugs and assistants (60%).

This data suggests that the low ticket items, especially the items that you can take with you when move home, are being consumed more like smart phones. The core capabilities of these products are appealing enough for consumers to invest before the product has reached its technological maturity - new features can and will drive purchases.