Security Service Companies Leading Adoption of Smart Home Control Systems, Says Parks

Adoption of home control systems had a 38% year-on-year growth rate at the end of 2019, blogged Parks Associates Tuesday. Just under a fifth of U.S. broadband households have a home control system; half of those bought the system with their first smart home device, Parks said. “The conversion of legacy security subscribers to interactive security services that support smart home automation is driving the increase in home control systems,” said analyst Brad Russell, while adoption of do-it-yourself home control systems independent of security “has remained flat.” A survey of 10,000 broadband households said consumers are most likely to acquire a home control system in the early stage of smart home adoption vs. at a later stage when they own multiple smart home devices. “Most consumers do not buy three or more smart home products and then look for a system to control all their devices, so migrating consumers from multiple devices to a system is currently a challenge for the industry,” he said. Most owners of smart homes use multiple apps to control their devices; as more become multi-device households, they will “start to seek out a simple, unified experience.”