51% of recent smart home device buyers bought three or more devices in the past year
“Early Majority” tech adopters with a simple smart home now make up the largest market segment of buyers
Parks Associates’ new Quantified Consumer research, Smart Home Buyer Journey, shows that the “Early Majority” segment now represents 33% of all smart home adopter households. The research captured 10,010 heads of households and is demographically representative of internet households in the US.
“The ‘Early Majority’ tech adopters with a simple smart home now make up the largest segment of the market,” said Elizabeth Parks, President and CMO, Parks Associates. “The profile of the smart home adopter looks different in 2022. The Super User (10+ devices) who buys technology immediately and tends to own five or more smart home devices is no longer the center of the story. A shift toward mass market may finally be under way.”
Improving value perceptions remains the top challenge for smart home players. Parks Associates research shows 54% of US internet households say smart home devices are not valuable and the majority also say smart home devices are not affordable.
“The industry still has a long way to go in raising perceptions of smart home solutions,” said Jennifer Kent, Vice President, Research, Parks Associates. “The first step is basic familiarity with the benefits, and the next is communicating the value proposition.”
The research firm is hosting the CONNECTIONS™ Conference virtual session, New Era of Home Services on July 20, 2 PM CST, featuring Alexander Linn, CEO, Shipshape AI, as the visionary spotlight and the panel discussion Smart Home Platforms: Unifying the Experience.
Despite growth and change in the adopter base between 2021 and 2022, platform utilization among users to control their devices remains stable. Smart home adopter households continue to rely on multiple platforms to control their devices. While Amazon still dominates as the top platform for control, usage of Echo or Alexa is falling, as part of the overall stagnation in the smart speaker market, while usage of the Ring Alarm as a control point is on the rise.
About Parks Associates
Parks Associates, a woman-founded and certified business, is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates provides business intelligence and research services through its proprietary methodologies developed over decades, including quarterly surveys of 10,000 internet households.
The company's expertise crosses many industries: home security and smart home, streaming video, broadband and pay-TV services, digital media and platforms, gaming, Wi-Fi and home networks, connected health, support, consumer electronics, home control systems, energy management, and tech solutions for the multi-dwelling (MDU), small-to-medium business (SMB), and commercial building markets.
Each year, Parks Associates brings thousands of leaders together for its webinars and annual events. The firm hosts the annual executive research and strategy conferences CONNECTIONS™, Connected Health Summit, Smart Energy Summit, Smart Spaces, and Future of Video. https://www.parksassociates.com
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