Consumers Expect Fully Connected Homes This Year, Report Says

Homes are getting more and more hooked up, with lights, thermostats and security systems leading the way, but developers aren’t predicting “fully connected homes” to come into mass market for quite some time. To the contrary, however, according to a ThroughTek study released on June 11, consumers are expecting just that.

The “2015 Internet of Challenges Report” about consumer adoption of IoT technology, showed that one third of Americans believes that fully Connected Homes are possible before the end of 2015. Sixty percent of folks surveyed were on board within the next five years. Energy efficiency driven from IoT technology is what is attractive to about 60 percent of respondents.

However, the study says, in order to get to widespread IoT adoption, two major obstacles must be overcome: cost and security. A large percentage of consumers, almost 90 percent said that they are unwilling to pay more than $250 for a connected device, and nearly a third reported anxiety about lack of security for personal data.

“Full IoT adoption is no longer a loose possibility within American homes. It’s a reality that will come to fruition in the near future,” said Daniel Collins, Chief Data Officer, ThroughTek. “Concerns regarding cost and cyber security are to be expected. However, benefits such as improvinghome energy efficiency will begin to outrank skepticism—especially as IoT adoption continues to become more widely implemented.”

Another interesting finding was that consumers are concerned about connected devices becoming obsolete or out of date, while the technical complexity is no concern at all for 84 percent of consumers.

“We’re greatly anticipating how consumers will respond to the benefits that a fully connected home will provide—especially as their anxieties are addressed through IoT advancements,” said Collins. “As devices continue to emerge within the market, IoT adoption within the home will become the norm.”

For more information about Connected Home and how it’s developing, make sure you hit the IoT Evolution Expo, coming up August 17 to 20 in Las Vegas.