For the independent security dealer, all of these changing customer and technology profiles is already happening. The appeal of the walled garden’s closed system is convenience and usability; however, that point of distinction is being eroded by those same factors.
Parks Associates recently mapped the smart home’s competitive landscape by looking for cues and harbingers in user reviews. What Parks’ Tom Kerber found was that walled garden automation was already showing signs of dying off.
“The breadth of [open] platforms is much more substantial,” Kerber says. “It will be hard to maintain a [vertically integrated] approach, or even, for that matter, a highly curated approach, when a very open approach can provide a similar user experience and provide much more access…to whatever product you may have or want to own.”
If there’s a key takeaway from the Parks Associates study for your purposes, it is this: The move from vertically integrated to open “could happen relatively quickly,” according to Kerber. “Our recommendation to smart home platform providers, as well as service providers, is to plan for that eventuality.”
This means security dealers may need to consider offering a broader range of products, he adds.
From the article "Residential Security: Beyond the Walled Garden" by Shawn Welsh.
During its CEDIA Expo TechTalk, Google Nest mentioned one key statistic that set the tone for the rest of the presentation: According to Parks Associates, 43% of US broadband households intend to purc...
Smart locks contribute enhanced convenience as well as increased security, two of the principal driving factors in any smart device sales. In fact, a recent Parks Associates study found that 45% of sm...
Simply installing security systems in smarthomes is no longer enough, and security integrators may want to consider bolstering cybersecurity measures when installing residential systems. This swift...
Data and privacy fears rank second among consumer smart home concerns. More than half of U.S. adults (58%) fear lack of privacy from device manufacturers who have access to data, real-time conversatio...
