According to a report published earlier this month by NPD Group, 2016 U.S. dollar sales of home automation products grew by 57 percent compared to 2015. The research firm said that security and monitoring products continue to lead the category as they made up over 60 percent of dollar share.
Smart entry devices, such as smart doorbells, saw an increase in dollar and unit sales of 171 percent and 206 percent, respectively, when compared to the year prior, according to NPD’s Retail Tracking Service.
While awareness levels of many smart home devices have fluctuated, smart doorbells saw growing awareness and ownership. In fact, smart doorbell awareness increased four percentage points, and ownership increased two percentage points, according to the Connected Home Automation Report from NPD’s Connected Intelligence.
In addition, network video cameras continue to be the most common component of the contemporary smart home, as nearly one-third of smart homes have one installed. Over the last year, consumer demand for multi-packs of IP cameras has increased 129 percent in U.S. dollar sales versus 2015, according to NPD’s Retail Tracking Service.
“Network cameras have long been considered the entry point into the smart home, but growing demand for items sold in sets shows that the market is maturing,” said Ben Arnold, executive director, industry analyst for The NPD Group. “We fully expect the next two years will see a broadening appeal of smart home devices and estimate that the category will nearly double in that time.”
Voice Command Usage
Among households that have smart home products installed, nearly half (48 percent) are using voice commands in some manner, and one quarter of owners are using voice commands to control their home automation devices. While Siri is the most commonly used digital assistant, Alexa experiences usage levels that are twice as high among smart home product owners, as compared to the general population of voice command users.
“Alexa integration into such a wide range of devices has positioned it to be the leading artificial intelligence driving home automation devices,” stated John Buffone, executive director, industry analyst, NPD Connected Intelligence. “One-in-five Echo users have already adopted using the Echo to control other devices within their homes. We expect this to become increasingly common as Alexa adds skills that enable control of additional devices.”
