SmartRent, a provider of smart home systems for property managers and renters, announced Wednesday an investment from Amazon Alexa Fund. It will use the funding to work with teams from Amazon and Ring to develop software and hardware for connected communities including smart locks, voice control and leak sensors, it said. The multifamily housing market has been "largely overlooked" by the smart home industry, said SmartRent CEO Lucas Haldeman.
Smartphone users don't see 5G value over their current subscriptions, with 13 percent saying they’re willing to pay more for 5G, said Parks Associates' Craig Leslie Tuesday. Over half of U.S. broadband households are unfamiliar with 5G, he said: Limited availability means it won’t replace 4G LTE or fixed services “anytime soon.” Carriers need to communicate benefits and uses of 5G more effectively to convince customers to upgrade, said the analyst. Still, it's a “significant influencer” in carrier selection, Leslie said, “even if consumers are unwilling to pay more” -- 31 percent of U.S. broadband households consider 5G availability very important when choosing a new provider. U.S. broadband households buying a smartphone fell 40 percent from Q1 2016 to this Q1.
Amazon and Google continue to mend fences, with Amazon blogging Monday that Google's YouTube TV app is officially available for most Fire TV devices, except first-gen sticks and Fire TVs. The YouTube TV app offers more than 70 channels, said Michael Polin, Fire TV product marketing. He described the service as a “cable-free live TV experience” akin to live TV “without the hassle of renting cable boxes, scheduling complicated installations or committing to long-term contracts.” He cited its unlimited cloud DVR storage space and account-sharing for six people per household, without noting the $50 monthly fee.
Easing processor shortages and improved graphics processor inventories led to 17 percent year-on-year growth for gaming desktops, notebooks and monitors in Q2, said a Monday IDC report. Fear of tariffs on Chinese imports also helped boost overall device shipments in the U.S., it said. Gaming notebooks grew 13 percent, boosted by models that may support ray tracing across a wide range of price points, said the report. Gaming desktops “finally recovered” after several “tough” quarters, with 3.3 percent year-on-year growth in shipments; monitor shipments remained “strong,” rising 3.3 percent, it said. IDC increased its short-term outlook for the category based on strong monitor demand, but it lowered the long-term forecast for desktop and notebooks. IDC forecasts “steady, if modest” gaming device adoption through 2023.
The potential of 5G gives Best Buy confidence to “continue to try different vectors” of new businesses, in addition to the healthcare services offering for seniors it began last year with its $800 million GreatCall buy (see 1808150071), CEO Corie Barry told her company’s investor day conference last week (see 1909260030). “You can’t always see what’s coming next,” she said. “Everyone conventionally” thinks about 5G as a “mobile phone technology,” said Barry. It “will actually increase the pipe that goes into your home,” creating a “whole new suite of products that will serve that particular source,” she said. “We’ll continue to try some of the different product areas.” Under “past” thinking, “we may have simply looked at the core retail technology products aimed at seniors and quantified that as the addressable market,” said Barry. “If we expanded that definition to include the services more geared around health and safety,” the market “more than doubles,” she said. “Think urgent response, fall detection, concierge help.” Best Buy Health President Asheesh Saksena said the goal is to reach 5 million seniors through remote monitoring and other services by the fiscal year ending February 2025, vs. 1 million now. It aims to “bring technology” into the home "at scale,” said Saksena.
Consumer spending on smart home hardware, services and installation fees will reach $103 billion globally in 2019 and increase at an 11 percent compound annual growth rate to $157 billion by 2023, said Strategy Analytics Wednesday. It predicts spending on devices alone will reach $55 billion in 2019 and rise at a 10 percent CAGR to $81 billion by 2023. More than 200 million homes globally owned at least one smart home device at the end of 2018, and there will be an additional 100 million by 2023 as smart home penetration reaches 30 percent of all broadband households worldwide, it said. By the end of 2023, more than 6.4 billion smart home devices will be in use, an average of 21 per smart home, it said.
The global market for smart home devices is expected to grow 23.5 percent in 2019, reaching nearly 815 million unit shipments, said IDC Monday. It forecasts shipments exceeding 1.39 billion in 2023, based on a 14.4 percent five-year compound annual growth rate, it said. Competitive price reductions, rising consumer awareness of smart home and the rapid adoption of smart assistants will drive the increases, said IDC. The U.S. will have the “lion's share” of unit shipments each year, rising at a 9.5 percent CAGR to reach more than 560 million devices in 2023, it said. China will be second to the U.S. in global volume but have the world’s highest CAGR at 22.6 percent, it said. "Content and services are going be at the forefront for the smart home market as video entertainment products such as the Fire TV or Chromecast will serve as an on-ramp for consumers entering the world of connected home products," said IDC. Smart TVs will have a nearly 30 percent share of all smart home device shipments in 2023, it said. Falling prices and advanced functionality, such as 8K, higher refresh rates, HDR and integration with smart assistants and streaming platforms, will spur many consumers to upgrade their sets, it said. IDC expects growth in smart speakers and displays to slow to “single digits in the next few years,” it said. The installed base of smart speakers will approach “saturation,” and consumers “will look to other form factors to access smart assistants in the home,” such as thermostats, appliances and TVs, it said.
Total U.S. shipments of “personal devices,” including desktop PCs, laptops, tablets and mobile phones, will rise at only 0.2 percent compound annual growth rate the next few years, reaching 278.6 million units in 2023, reported the Daniel Research Group Tuesday. “Standard” phones will have the biggest CAGR decline through 2023 at 34.8 percent, while smartphones increase at a 1.8 percent CAGR through the period, it said. Total tablets will have an 8.2 percent CAGR decline, it said. The forecasts assume no U.S. recession and that Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods increase prices by 10 to 25 percent, depending on the product, it said.
Homeowners’ self-installation of smart door locks is growing, reaching 59 percent of all installations at the end of 2018, a 20-point increase from just two years earlier, said Parks Associates Monday. “As manufacturers launch new and second-generation products, they are trying to balance security with convenience, customization, and expanding use cases, such as voice control and security notifications,” said Parks. Since door locks at their core have a security function, manufacturers have been reluctant to enable voice control to unlock doors “due to challenges with fully authenticating users,” it said. The development of facial and fingerprint authentication “allows device manufacturers to create additional convenience while still maintaining a high level of security,” it said, but “current far-field voice recognition technology is not yet up to the security challenge.".
U.S. consumer tech revenue is expected to grow 3 percent annually through 2021, spurred by “desire” for home automation, “rising interest in smart displays” and other trends, said NPD last week. “Steady single-digit growth is notable in a mature market where consumers are not replacing or repurchasing items at the same rate they did in prior years.”