Automated Home - Thematic Research

Automated Home - Thematic Research

Summary

Seventy years ago, animator Tex Avery directed the satirical short film The House of Tomorrow. It featured such innovations as an indoor rain cloud ready to provide moisture at the touch of a button, an automatic sandwich maker, and chairs that automatically adjusted themselves based on the occupant. These features may be missing from today’s automated home, but a growing number of people can now control their lights, heating, appliances, and security systems at the touch of a button—or even via voice commands.

Spending on automated home devices will reach $93 billion by 2024, according to GlobalData forecasts. Much of that growth will be driven by smart security and smart appliances. GlobalData expects sales of smart security systems to generate 38% of global automated home revenue by 2024, with smart appliances contributing 25%.

Key Highlights

• The advent of smart speakers has had a significant impact across the automated home. They have enabled simple, voice-activated control of all types of smart devices. Thanks to their relatively low price point, they offer an ideal entry point for customers curious about home automation. Their success has also turned the home into another front in the ongoing war between the giants of the technology industry, including Amazon, Google, Apple, Alibaba, and Samsung.
• The foundation of Amazon’s automated home business is its Echo range of smart speakers. The company has built on that with acquisitions, including spending $1 billion on smart doorbell manufacturer Ring and $1.7 billion on consumer robot manufacturer iRobot. Google, with its Nest ecosystem of automated home devices, is also a market leader. The Chinese market represents a significant opportunity, with Alibaba, Baidu, and Xiaomi the leading vendors.
• Samsung and Microsoft are falling behind in this theme. Samsung’s smart speaker was announced in 2018 but has failed to materialize. Microsoft, a company that rarely misses out on the biggest themes, has a limited automated home offering. Specialist automated home device vendors are struggling to compete with the tech giants. As a result, they will either be acquired or forced out of business.

• This report provides an overview of the automated home theme.
• It identifies the key trends impacting growth of the theme over the next 12 to 24 months, split into three categories: technology trends, macroeconomic trends, and regulatory trends.
• It includes global market forecasts for the automated home market and analysis of patents and company filings trends.
• It contains details of M&A deals driven by the automated home theme, and a timeline highlighting milestones in the development of the automated home.
• The detailed value chain consists of four layers: device, connectivity, data, and apps.

• Over the past five years, and with a push from the COVID pandemic, automated home devices have become more pervasive in households worldwide. Consumers have been able to derive numerous benefits from installing such devices in their homes, making them more secure, more energy-efficient, and making day-to-day tasks easier. However, fears around data privacy are widespread and a significant barrier to the pervasive adoption of automated home devices. Fueled by high-profile data breaches, individuals are concerned about the hacking of automated home devices. This report provides an invaluable guide to this disruptive theme. It includes comprehensive lists of the leading players across all aspects of the value chain, helping companies identify the right partners.