IHS: Market for indoor door phone units won’t be significantly impacted by smart home tech

    Feb. 23, 2015
    Research firm says geographic differences means there will still be a place for indoor units

    Source SecurityInfoWatch.com

    (Image courtesy bigstockphoto.com/Denys Prykhodov)
    IHS says market for indoor door phone units won’t be significantly impacted by smart home tech.
    IHS says market for indoor door phone units won’t be significantly impacted by smart home tech.

    Despite increased interest and adoption of smart home technology, IHS predicts that the market for door phones, specifically indoor units, will be minimally impacted by this trend.

    In a research note, IHS Senior Analyst Oliver Philippou said that while all of these new smart home services are being integrated and controlled by an intelligent alarm control panel or mobile device, there will still be a place for indoor door phone units. Indoor units accounted for 50 percent of the $2.3 billion market for door phones in 2014, according to IHS, and the market is forecast to grow in line with other component items and villa kits through to 2019.

    Philippou said the reason the smart home market is not expected to significantly impact the use of indoor units in the near future can be attributed to geographic differences including:

    • While there are high-end smart home offerings around the world, the drive to bring the smart home to the mass market is taking place in North America, which at present is a relatively small market for door phones when compared to Europe and Asia.
    • The European and Asian door phone markets are highly focused on the residential market, while the North American market is heavily focused on commercial end-users.
    • The type of residential user is very different as well. In Asia door phones are mainly used in high rise flats, where smart home applications are much harder to implement, due to building services normally being managed by the building owners, not the residents. In North America, however, proportionally there are many more villa kits and door phones for smaller occupancy buildings sold. These types of products are much easier to integrate with smart home offerings.