Nate Williams, Chief Revenue Officer, August Home, provides insight on several key industry trends for Parks Associates’ 20th-annual CONNECTIONS Conference, which will be held May 24-26 in San Francisco:
What do you think is the biggest driver for the connected consumer market?
The promise of the smart home is not new. In fact, it’s been around for several decades. However, only recently have truly "smart and connected" home devices gained wider acceptance. In part, this is being driven by the availability of new products that solve real consumer problems and needs. For some time, many smart home products were solutions in search of problems people didn’t have. With hero products from companies including Nest, Philips Hue, Sonos and Amazon, people are adopting smart home technology because these products are serving real needs in their lives.
At August Home, our products address a fundamental element of the smart home -- safety and security. We recently collaborated on a study with Xfinity Home, The Safe & Smart Home: Security in the Smart Home Era, which found that the connected home is on the rise, with nearly 30 million U.S. households projected to add smart home technology in the next 12 months. Further, the products consumers were most excited about adding to their homes include connected cameras (40%), video doorbells (26%), connected light bulbs (19%) and smart locks (13%). And, it’s not a coincidence that these top picks are security-focused, as 63% cite family safety as the biggest motivator for adopting smart home technology. A a close second, consumers are adopting smart home technology to simplify their lives with greater convenience (54%).
And with this desire for greater convenience, we’ve designed the August Smart Home Access System to give consumers unprecedented visibility and control over the front door. With the confidence that brings, it allows consumers to manage access to the home in a completely new way, opening them up to providing access to trusted family members as well as a variety of leading home services that deliver great products and services to the home. Nearly 30% of consumers confirmed that they would grant temporary access to home service providers with a smartphone and a smart lock. And, next year is set to be a bigger year for granting temporary access to the home as consumers gain confidence with connected home devices more of them will transition to using these devices for more than safety and security, but also to improve their everyday lives.
Click to Tweet this image:
Williams will speak on the session “Smart Home Devices: Changing Business Models” on Wednesday, May 25 at 1:15 p.m. Other speakers on the panel include WiZR, Nortek Security & Control, HomeAdvisor Inc., and SmartThings.
For more information on CONNECTIONS, visit www.connectionsus.com or register by clicking here.
