Vivint Smart Home keynote presents eight barriers to smart home adoption; sessions feature Rovi, AT&T, Comcast, CEDIA, Verimatrix, and HP

Parks Associates hosted the final day of the company’s 20^th-annual CONNECTIONS™: The Premier Connected Home Conference today in San Francisco with panel discussions moderated by the firm’s analysts and featuring executives from companies throughout the IoT space, including Vivint Smart Home, Rovi, AT&T Digital Life, Schneider Electric, Comcast, and Hewlett-Packard. In the opening session “A Look at IoT 2.0,” Tom Kerber, Director, Research, Home Controls & Energy, Parks Associates, discussed business models for the smart home.

“There are several alternative business models emerging for the smart home, including a two-sided business model, from companies such as EnergyHub and WattzOn, and open platforms, where Samsung, through SmartThings, has moved aggressively into this space,” Kerber said. “We had a near-universal agreement among CONNECTIONS™ speakers and attendees that partnerships are critical to success in IoT. By 2020, more than 24 million U.S. broadband households will have a smart home controller, making 2016 the ideal time for businesses to build the partnerships they need to achieve the vision of an IoT-enabled smart home.”

In his keynote “The Transition from Connected Home to Smart Home,” Matt Eyring, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Vivint Smart Home, presented the eight barriers to mass-market adoption of the smart home:

• Lack of clear and compelling consumer use cases
• Difficulty educating consumer through typical sales channels
• Burden on consumer to understand interoperability
• High up-front pricing
• Difficulty of installation
• Poor product and system reliability
• Lack of post-install service
• Security and privacy concerns

CONNECTIONS™, held May 24-26 in San Francisco, brings together more than 650 attendees to examine the connected home ecosystems and the Internet of Things (IoT), including smart home, connected entertainment, connected car, and digital health technologies. On May 25, Parks Associates’ entertainment and connected CE analysts Brett Sappington and Barbara Kraus presented their top 10 list of disruptors in connected entertainment:

1. Virtual reality
2. Live streaming
3. Voice control
4. Pay TV as the new OTT
5. Devices as smart home controllers
6. Integrated discovery
7. Device makers and streaming services
8. 4K + HDR
9. Privacy and security of data
10. Redefining video game entertainment

“Virtual reality has the potential to have significant impact on many market sectors, particularly those that benefit from immersion and engagement,” Sappington said. “Despite the recent industry excitement around VR, overall consumer awareness of this technology is low. Yet, retailers are selling out pre-orders of some VR headset models, suggesting that adoption could jump in the near term. Five percent of U.S. broadband households say that they plan to buy a VR headset by the end of 2016. TV and movie producers, brands, and consumers are starting to create interesting virtual reality and 360-degree content, which will further drive interest, investment, awareness, and adoption.”

Michael Hawkey, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Discovery Business Group for Rovi, concluded CONNECTIONS™ with the keynote “Powering ‘What’s On’ In A New World.” He said, “With so many different entertainment content options available to consumers today, service providers need discovery services that will power an even more personalized user experience. By streamlining discovery, users can easily navigate the growing number of content options while providers benefit from increased consumption."

Additional CONNECTIONS™ topics included consumer privacy, media piracy, big data, and the emergence of voice as a key user interface, with Amazon driving this change through Echo and Alexa.

"As discussed in the 'Risky Business: Piracy and Protecting Content in an OTT World' session on Wednesday, piracy of premium and pay-TV content can be successfully mitigated by technological means in combination with effective policies, business models catering to consumers' expectations, and ease of content discovery, navigation, and use," said Petr Peterka, CTO of Verimatrix. "Interestingly enough, the same digital rights management technology can be used to protect video from home security cameras as well as to guarantee the privacy and integrity of consumers' data collected from IoT devices."

Parks Associates is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Since 1986, the company has provided research and analysis to companies ranging from Fortune 500 to small start-ups through market reports, primary studies, consumer research, custom research, consultation, workshops, executive conferences, and annual service subscriptions.

CONNECTIONS™ Sponsors include Reception Sponsors CEL and Zonoff; Session Sponsors Icontrol Networks and PlumChoice; Lunch Sponsors Coldwell Banker and NXP; Silver Sponsors Alarm.com, Assurant, Asurion, Centercode, ROC-Connect, Support.com, ULE Alliance, WiZR, and ZigBee Alliance; Bronze Sponsors Audio Analytic, Ayla Networks, Cirrent, EVRYTHNG, Flextronics, Honeywell, HP, iQor, mnubo, People Power, PlanetEcosystems, WeatherBug Home, and Z-Wave; Program Guide Sponsor Vivint; Breakfast Sponsors Greenwave Systems and leakSMART; and Break Sponsors Home8, HomeAdvisor, Nortek Security & Control, State Farm, and Tyco.

For more information on CONNECTIONS™, visit www.connectionsus.com. The next Parks Associates event will be the Connected Health Summit: Engaging Consumers, August 30 - September 1, 2016, in San Diego, followed by CONNECTIONS™ Europe: Smart Home, IoT, and the Connected Consumer in Amsterdam, November 2-3, 2016.

To schedule an interview with an analyst or request specific research, contact Holly Sprague at hsprague@gmail.com, 720.987.6614.

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