Europe and North America to Have 179 Million Smart Homes by 2024
Smart home and home automation systems include a wide range of solutions for controlling, monitoring and automating functions in the home. Smart home systems can be grouped into seven primary categories: security and access control systems; energy management and climate control systems; audio-visual and entertainment systems; lighting and window control systems; healthcare and independent living systems; home appliances and service robotics.
The North American smart home market recorded strong growth during 2019. The installed base of smart home systems increased by 28.5% to reach 172.6 million at the year-end. An estimated 19.1 million of these were multifunction or whole-home systems whereas 153.5 million were point solutions designed for one specific function.
As some homes have more than one smart system in use, the installed base totalled an estimated 43.1 million smart homes at the end of the year. This corresponds to 30.2% of all households, placing North America as the most advanced smart home market in the world.
Between 2019 and 2024, the number of households that adopt smart home systems is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.5 percent, resulting in 77.9 million smart homes. The market value reached US$ 27 billion (€24.1 billion) in 2019, an increase of 20.5% year-on-year. The market value is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.1% between 2019 and 2024, reaching US$ 52.3 billion (€46.7 billion) in yearly revenues at the end of the forecast period.
The European market for smart home systems is still a few years behind North America, both in terms of market penetration and maturity. At the end of 2019, there was a total of 111.9 million smart home systems in use in the EU28+2 countries, up from 83.9 million in the previous year. Around 10.8 million of these systems were multifunction or whole-home systems whereas 101.1 million were point solutions. This corresponds to around 40.3 million smart homes when overlaps are taken into account, meaning that 17.4% of all households in Europe were smart at the end of the year.
The number of European households to adopt smart home systems is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.2% during the next five years, resulting in 101.1 million smart homes by 2024. The market value grew by 28.7% to €16.6 billion (US$ 18.5 billion) in 2019. The market value is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 24.3% between 2019 and 2024 to reach €49 billion (US$ 54.9 billion) at the end of the forecast period.
A point solution will in many cases constitute the consumer's first smart home purchase. Compared to whole-home systems, point solutions generated 62% of the combined market revenues in North America and Europe. The most popular point solutions to date, in terms of sold units, include smart thermostats, smart light bulbs, smart plugs, connected security cameras and voice controlled smart speakers. These products are marketed by incumbent OEMs such as Signify, Resideo, Danfoss, Belkin, Chamberlain, Kwikset and Assa Abloy and newer entrants such as Ecobee, Sonos, Arlo, Netatmo, IKEA and Wyze Labs.
In the whole-home system market, traditional home automation vendors such as Crestron Electronics, Control4, Savant Systems, eQ-3 and Loxone are facing new competition as companies from adjacent industries have entered the market. Communications and security service providers such as ADT, Vivint, Comcast and Brinks Home Security (Monitronics) have established themselves among the largest whole-home solution vendors in North America. Major vendors in Europe include Centrica, Somfy, Deutsche Telekom and Verisure.
The COVID-19 pandemic has so far had a very limited negative effect on the smart home market in North America and Europe. While sales in brick-and-mortar stores declined, online sales instead surged. Many people spent more time at home during the pandemic and thus became interested in home improvement activities such as adding smart homes devices.
The analyst expects that working from home will become increasingly common in the future, even as COVID-19 related lockdowns and restrictions are eased.
Source: Yahoo Finance