The number of internet-connected homes with smart home products have increased compared to last year. This includes voice-activated devices which often influence additional home automation purchases. Aaron Baar breaks down the numbers in this new article via MediaPost. Visit Lennar.com/EI to learn more about the Connected Home by Lennar, the first Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ Home Design that keeps you connected to the most desirable technology brand devices, all of which are included with your new Lennar home.
Though still relatively minor in terms of overall penetration, home automation is catching on with consumers.
According to research from The NPD Group, 15% of American households with internet own a home automation device, up from 10% in April 2016. Dollar sales meanwhile, are up 43%, led by growth in security and monitoring devices, and strong gains in video doorbells (up 123%) and smart lighting (up 83%).
The gateway to home automation, it seems, is through voice-activated wireless speakers (of which ownership has tripled in the past year). More than a third (36%) of smart home device owners have a voice-activated speaker and more than half (57%) of Google Home owners said they bought their first home automation product after owning a speaker. (The same holds true for 48% of Amazon Echo owners.)
Not surprisingly, younger consumers are most likely to own voice-activated wireless speakers and a home automation device. However, 11% of consumers 35-54 have a voice-enabled speaker (up from 7% last year; ownership among those 55+ grew to 6% from 1% in 2016).
“The voice-enabled speaker market is expanding quickly,” said Ben Arnold, executive director and industry analyst for The NPD Group, in a statement. “As sales of these devices continue to grow, and more voice-enabled applications are developed, the use case for intelligent voice speakers, particularly as it relates to home automation devices, will continue to expand.”
Source: Consumers Showing Affinity For Smart Home Products 10/13/2017
