Gartner: Typical Family Home Could Contain More Than 500 Smart Devices By 2022
Analyzing and monetizing information — Virtually all smart domestic objects will contain some type of sensor, and some will contain many sensors. Collecting, analyzing and monetizing the information collected by smart products will be central to many IoT-based digital business models.
Despite the many business opportunities afforded by the smart home, the smart home vision faces many challenges, not the least that consumers may need to be convinced of its value. Some elements of smart home technology such as remote controlled switches and dimmers have been available for many years but have very little traction outside techno-geek users because few consumers see sufficient value. Product designers must strive to create value that goes beyond technological novelty and simple control functions. Furthermore, smart products will be internally more complex than their predecessors but to be successful the product must appear simple and usable for nontechnical individuals.
Consumers are also likely to have concerns over data usage, security and privacy. Digital business models will rely heavily on the additional information that smart products collect compared with their "dumb" counterparts. But inappropriate use of this information could generate a consumer backlash. Business models that analyze information, especially those that combine information from several sources, must pay great attention to issues such as consumer opt-in, education and data security, and product developers should consider external audits of their information usage.
A lack of interoperability and standards may also hinder adoption of smart devices. Currently, the smart home domain is a confusing technical jumble that includes many different networking technologies and protocols, most of which are proprietary and don't interoperate. Some interoperability initiatives are underway; however, it's likely that although islands of interoperability will emerge around specific vendors and products, the domain will remain technically fragmented through 2020.
"Devices in the smart home will demand connectivity; some will demand high reliability as they'll be performing vital functions such as health monitoring, so homes will require reliable high-speed Inte
connections," said Mr. Jones. "If these connections fail, many domestic devices might be forced to operate in, at best, a degraded manner. If homes become as dependent on good connectivity as businesses they will need fallback systems."
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