Smart Home Industry Loses 'Billions' Not Sharing Data: ABI

Billions of dollars in potential value is being lost in the smart home market because data isn’t being used fully, ABI Research reported. The market must support more “standardized and straightforward data sharing” between smart home players, OEMs and service providers to capture untapped revenue streams, said analyst Jonathan Collins. Data is leveraged in silos, typically by the largest smart home platform providers to support their own core business revenue streams, either advertising, hardware or retail, he said Thursday. “The industry has started to address proprietary data’s limitations,” said Collins, citing initiatives such as Project Chip (Connected Home over IP), which has support from the largest players in the industry to drive data interoperability between smart home device and smart home management platforms. To realize wider value, “the industry will have to address similar strategies for making smart home data available from smart home platforms to third-party applications,” he said. The analyst recognized Vivint for discussing the potential value of data. Consumer privacy and data regulation remain hurdles in the market, which won’t begin to scale until mid-decade, he said. By 2030, ABI forecasts smart home data access will be a $2.7 billion market.