Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
eWEEK.com
Search
eWEEK.com
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Small Business

    Smart Home Automation Products Fail to Impress Consumers

    By
    NATHAN EDDY
    -
    September 30, 2015
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      home automation and argus

      Smart home devices and technology are supposed to make life easier for consumers, but a new report from Argus Insights shows that satisfaction is only slowly rising while overall demand continues to decline.

      According to the new data, distrust from consumers about the reliability of connected devices is obstructing growth in consumer adoption.

      “It is surprising to see that consumers are getting happier as demand continues to fall,” John Feland, Argus Insights CEO told eWEEK. “This is due to the early adopters who have soldiered through the learning curve and can now enjoy the benefits of products, but overall delight remains rather low due to connectivity and reliability issues.”

      Feland also noted the report is not based on a survey, but upon analysis of over 45,000 consumer reviews, allowing the data to represent a large pool of consumers actually using the products.

      “By focusing on the same data we all use to guide our own purchase decisions, we are able to uncover what is important to the market, not what questions are important to the surveyor,” he said.

      Along with a steady drop in demand, [consumer wariness] may lead to a challenging holiday sales season for home automation companies, the report noted.

      The report takes a deeper look at consumer response to security systems, in particular Canary and SimpliSafe, and security cameras and the Nest Cam market acceptance.

      “Security is just one concern in the web of issues constraining consumer adoption of home automation products. In analysis of social conversation, we have seen concern about failed security tests exposing just how easy it is for hackers to access information from a long list of smart home devices,” Feland said. “One appeal of the DIY market is that security footage and other information about daily routines is not monitored by a third party, but this pro is outweighed by the cons of spotty network connection and lagging notifications.”

      He said this is especially important given the number of vendors that insist consumers push their live feeds to the cloud for processing, increasing the avenues by which hackers and others can access private data.

      The report also indicated products that deliver on the promise of easy installation and maintenance are driving up delight metrics.

      “In the near future, we predict a continued drop in demand until the industry can address the installation and reliability issues. While interest in the smart home market is clear, the user experience must become simplified to enable the typical consumer to install and use connected devices,” Feland said. “The challenges of consumers working across connectivity standards, Zigbee, ZWave, BLE, WiFi and more, are slowing adoption.”

      He explained when the industry converges on a set of technology implementations that are largely immune to the wide diversity of networking skills possessed by consumers, we will see this market fulfill the promised growth.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      CHRIS PREIMESBERGER - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      CHRIS PREIMESBERGER - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      EWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      ZEUS KERRAVALA - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      WAYNE RASH - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Info

      © 2020 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×