The global market for smart home devices is expected to grow by 27% year-over-year in 2019, as consumers adopt multiple smart devices within their homes.
This is according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Smart Home Device Tracker.
Sustained growth is expected to continue within the smart home market over the 2019-2023 forecast period, with nearly 1.6 billion devices predicted to be shipped by 2023, notes the report. As global availability of products and services increases, the market is forecast to show a compound annual growth rate of 17%.
This year, video entertainment devices are expected to achieve the highest growth (43%), with smart speakers ranking in second place (17.3%), followed by home monitoring/security devices (16.8%).
"2018 was all about getting products into consumers' homes, and both Amazon and Google excelled at this through low-cost smart speakers and multiple bundles across device categories," says Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers.
"However, 2019 will be more about tying the various devices together to form a more cohesive experience, and more importantly, layering in additional services."
Though the smart home market will be dominated by Amazon and Google, Apple is expected to gain traction in coming years. The existing popularity of iOS and macOS devices, combined with the availability of Apple apps/services on non-Apple products, will help the company slowly entice more consumers into its ecosystem while also attracting third-parties to build compatible devices, adds IDC.
Samsung is another company worth watching, as its products extend into every category.
"One important trend to watch is how smart assistants become integrated throughout the home," says Ramon Llamas, research director for IDC's consumer Internet of things programme.
"Smart assistants will act as the point of contact with multiple smart home devices and essentially become the cornerstone of the smart home experience. Already we've been seeing that with smart speakers and this will eventually move on to appliances, thermostats and all sorts of video entertainment."
Increasing SA adoption
Ando Goddess, director of home automation products and services firm CMS Audio Visual, says while the same smart home products available globally are available in SA, the high price slows down the local adoption rate.
"In terms of product availability, SA is not lagging behind, because we have access to the same technologies as global markets, with all the major brands represented locally. Customers can do any type of home automation, as they would be able to do in any other country. However, the cost of automation in SA is very high, but this is slowly changing, with more entry-level products coming into the market."
LG Electronics SA has outlined its strategy to focus on using its artificial intelligence platform SmartThinQ in all electronic home appliances, to create a smart home automation ecosystem for local customers.
"While we are still in phase one of our strategy in SA, the launch phase has taken off well," says Matthew Louw, acting corporate marketing supervisor at LG Electronics SA.
"The ThinQ connectivity software on our appliances connects to users' ThinQ mobile apps and allows commands like turning on the air-conditioner, the washing machine or unlocking the garage door even before the user arrives at home. Users can tell their TV sets to play a certain YouTube video, or speak to their fridge."
According to research firm Market and Markets, the smart home market is expected to be valued at $151.4 billion by 2024, driven by increasing implementation of smart speakers, home appliances, lighting control systems, home healthcare products, smart furniture and entertainment systems.
"Entertainment and other controls segment are expected to hold the largest share of the smart home market during the forecast period. Major control systems used in smart homes are audio, volume and multimedia room controls," notes Market and Markets.
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