According to a recent report from Beecham Research, “Smart Home Market – Current Status, Consumption, Trends and Future Directions,” smart home products are still considered overpriced and uninteresting by most consumers.
The issues are most consumers are not aware of the poorly marketed products and their benefits, and that interoperability is missing among different products. Some are worried about data privacy as well.
Senior analyst and author of the report, Olena Kaplan, mentioned that a normal light bulb is typically more than 20 times cheaper than its smarter counterpart. “But evidence shows that consumers are willing to pay a premium price if they understand the value of the more expensive product,” she added. Thus, companies should offer sufficient information about the benefits for consumers to justify the price tag.
The report also identified Amazon as an example of those moving in the right direction by launching entry products, such as its Echo, that manages multiple things at a reasonable price.
References
Alex Scroxton, “Home IoT Technology Irrelevant to Most Home Owners,” TechTarget, October 4, 2016.
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