Battle Heating Up Over Who Will Deliver Smart Home Security, Says Futuresource

Security companies are the top choice to provide smart home services for consumers, Futuresource said. Most consumers prioritize safety for themselves and their family, emailed the researcher Monday. Security companies topped the list of providers consumers would buy a home service from, followed by utility companies and then ISPs, said the survey of consumers in the U.S. and Europe. Only one in four consumers will consider buying a smart security device or smart-home-as-a-service (SHaaS) due to lack of perceived value, said analyst Julian Issa. The tech giants -- Google, Amazon, Samsung and Facebook -- consider the rise of the smart home an opportunity to further extend their engagement with users, but it’s the security and monitoring space that has presented the biggest opportunity to implement a SHaaS model for these firms, said Issa. Benefits of SHaaS are a “consistent revenue stream, data capture and regular customer interaction leading to higher retention rates,” he said. As SHaaS will play an increasingly important role in the future of the smart home sector, “security is the sweet spot that can convert consumers to a SHaaS model,” said the analyst. For the do-it-yourself consumer, smart speakers and security devices remain the gateway products for the smart home world. For the service model, security video cameras with recording capabilities are the gateway product, he said. On a Parks Associates webinar last week, anti-virus company Bitdefender presented the internet service provider as an optimal provider of SHaaS (2006260025).