27% of U.S. Broadband Households Own at Least One Smart Speaker

Parks Associates' new report "Global Connected Living Outlook: Expanding IoT Momentum" reports 27% of U.S. broadband households reported owning at least one smart speaker, and that nearly 40% of consumers planning to purchase a smart home device find interoperability with either Amazon or Google personal assistants is important. Parks Associates's research on Home Security also reveals that 75% of home security installations in 2017 included smart control features.
 
The new reports are released as Parks Associates promotes its Connected Home Conference, CONNECTIONS, on May 22-24 in San Francisco to examine the impact of voice and AI innovations on consumer experiences in the smart home, connected entertainment, and IoT. The 2018 CONNECTIONS Conference will host more than 650 high-level executives in an intimate networking environment. The event includes a mix of market research, analysis, and industry insight designed to capture the complexity and opportunities in these interconnected markets.

"Many consumers expect the devices they are buying will work together," says Patrice Samuels, Sr. Research Analyst, Parks Associates. "When shopping for a smart home device, consumers prioritize device interoperability over specific brand ecosystems — 74% of consumers find it important to consider a smart home product brand that will work with other products in their home. Amazon and Google products are very popular, so consumers naturally prioritize products that work with these devices."

"Smart speakers with personal assistants represent the early stages of innovations that use AI elements to expand the user experience," says Jennifer Kent, Director, Research Quality & Product Development, Parks Associates. "They have proven very successful and are part of the evolution in the connected home from a collection of standalone devices to a unified experience with personalized and coordinated scenes."

CONNECTIONS features the session "AI: Contextual Learning to Drive Smart Home and Entertainment Experiences" on Wednesday, May 23, to examine the competitive advantages driven by data, the progress of AI, the value created by these applications, and the associated challenges with implementing AI in the home. Speakers include executives from eyeSight Technologies, Josh.ai, iRobot Corporation, Audio Analytic, and mnubo.

The session "Future of the Connected Home: Delivering on Promises," on Thursday, May 24, looks at the next stages of the connected home with speakers from Chamberlain, GM, IMONT Technologies Limited, and Comcast

The session "Tech Support & Privacy: Creating Consumer Confidence" at 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday, May 23, will examine the impact of smart home and IoT adoption on the support needs of consumers and households. The conference panel includes executives from Axius, Trend Micro, DOMOTZ, and Control4

Brad Russell, Director, Connected Home, Parks Associates, will moderate the session "Seamless Experiences: Interoperability and User Interfaces," which will look at the efforts to build a seamless experience that crosses brands, platforms, and ecosystems, invisible to the end user. The session includes speakers from Yonomi, Intel Corporation, Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF), MMB Networks, and VOLANSYS Technologies

On Thursday, May 24, Russell will also moderate the session "Security and Data Analytics: Protecting the Connected Consumer" at 10:30 a.m. The interactive panel will examine the innovations that are improving the security experience for smart home consumers. Joining Russell are executives from Rambus, CUJO AI, Fibaro, F-Secure, and Fing.

Prior to the conference, Parks Associates also published its Home Security: Channel Insights, which reports that 75% of home security installations in 2017 included smart control features. In addition, 90% of U.S. security dealers now offer at least basic interactive services with their systems, 36% report security systems sales with a networked camera, and 16% report sales with a smart thermostat.

"Security dealers continue to explore innovations to increase the consumer adoption of their offerings," says Dina Abdelrazik, Research Analyst, Parks Associates. "Currently only 5% of dealers report including smart speakers with their security system sales, but the popularity of these devices means we will start to see more voice control options in security installations. Large security providers such as ADT and MONI/Brinks have enabled Alexa skills and certain security functionalities to be accessible via voice commands through popular voice assistants."
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