The Foundation for the Smart Home is in Place

After decades of build-out and investment, and a global pandemic that pushed work, school, entertainment, and healthcare further into the home, households in the US and other developed markets are more connected than ever.

• 92% of US homes have internet
• 92% of US internet households have Wi-Fi
• 87% of US internet households have a smartphone
• 41% of US internet households have at least one smart home device
• 60% have a smart speaker and sensor innovation is rapidly growing

The home broadband market is growing at the fastest rate in well over a decade, and Parks Associates forecasts that by the end of 2025, approximately 93% of US households will have a broadband subscription — either fixed or mobile. The home network is a critical point of visibility and control for all the smart home, computing, entertainment, health, and other consumer electronic devices and has the potential to enable a new dimension of value by offering integrated applications.

Platforms & Standards Ease the Burden of Fragmentation

Now, 41% of US internet households report owning at least one core smart home device, with access control and security devices like locks, video doorbells, and cameras leading the way. Smart thermostats and lighting are also perennial frontrunners. Households with smart home devices are more likely to own multiple devices than they are to own just one.

On average, smart home device owners own eight devices, and the more devices owned, the more intense the desire that they work together seamlessly and intelligently. ?

A unified smart home experience is the holy grail of convenience and value for consumers, but fragmentation and interoperability issues have hindered the early development for the smart home. Curated, systems-based approaches – most notably through home security platforms and hub-based smart home systems — have been critical for providing a unified, seamless, smart home experience. Still, most consumers buy point solutions for particular use cases. This widespread purchase behavior limits the opportunity for integration and whole-home experiences.

Industry players have been building standards for decades, and the new Matter standard provides a possible solution that serves an enormous number of stakeholders in the smart home marketplace, including solution providers, manufacturers, and consumers.

With 200+ leading manufacturers aligning behind the Matter protocol, the smart home industry is a step closer to offering interoperability across various brand devices and platforms. This is important because mass-market adoption of smart home technologies requires interoperability — a unified, easy, and simple experience for the end user.

Nearly three-fourths of consumers indicate that a single “mark” on a device which communicates interoperability would be an important consideration when making smart home purchases.

Looking forward, platform development and innovation that enable greater interoperability will make ecosystem system fragmentation less prohibitive to the market.

Next-Generation Smart Home: Building for the Future is a new white paper published by Parks Associates in partnership with Connectivity Standards Alliance . We will be addressing these topics and more at the 27th annual CONNECTIONS Conference , in Frisco, Texas May 23-25. Please join us to learn more!