'Do-It-for-Me' Business Model Gaining Ground in Smart Home Market, Says Juniper

Smart security solutions will drive automation revenue totaling more than $57 million by 2024, up from $18 million this year, reported Juniper Research Tuesday. The “do-it-for-me” model -- based on vendors and integration specialists offering advice, installation, maintenance and cloud storage for monthly or annual subscriptions -- is gaining ground, said the research firm. Hive, Vivint Smart Home and TP-Link are among the industry players it cited offering subscription packages, broadening the smart home value proposition with extra cloud storage, devices or superior video quality. Insurers, utilities, mobile network operators and e-commerce vendors will look to carve out a spot in the smart home market by capitalizing on existing customer relationships where they have trusted brand names and established billing structures, but they will have to partner with smart home providers to make that business model viable, it said. The smart home is also attracting blockchain vendors who hope to solve interoperability and privacy issues hindering global smart home adoption. Blockchain could solve interoperability issues between devices, but it would also create interoperability issues between different distributed ledgers and add a level of unnecessary complexity to the fledgling smart home market, it said.