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 the decline.
This was revealed in the recently released Connected Home Demand Report. According to the data, consumers don’t trust that connected devices are reliable, and that’s keeping them from putting cash down on the barrel. That fact is leading to a steady drop in demand, the report said, and so these companies might be looking at a challenging holiday sales season. The Argus Insights Smart Home Delight report is available here.
Argus analyzed 45,000 consumer reviews from around the world returned in the period from March through August this year. The company found that there is a slow improvement in satisfaction among home automation customers with smart light bulbs, security kits and hubs, but there was disappointment from the owners of connected security cameras. 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.
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“These devices are still designed more for the IoT than the Internet of Humans,” said John Feland, CEO, Argus Insights. “Mainstream consumers were burned last holiday season by installation and reliability issues and though the remaining consumers in the market overall like these products more, the issues that forced out mainstream adopters after Holiday 2014 remain.”
The products that are easy to install and maintain are making consumers happy, which suggests that manufacturers that want to succeed need to perhaps go a bit slower to market and make sure their solutions work before selling them.
Edited by
Kyle Piscioniere
