The arrival of new, affordable DIY smart home automation products is expected to make ‘the Internet of things at home’ a reality for many Australian consumers over the next few years. Telsyte believes there is a groundswell of pent-up demand for home automation products that work easily with WiFi in the household.

The study reveals that energy management, lower cost devices, and unobtrusive wireless DIY installations are key drivers for the adoption of smart home automation systems.

Telsyte believes the Australian smart home automation market will evolve through a number of stages over the next decade. Within two years, there will be a significant opportunity to unify the large installed base of disparately connected devices under a master control system. Telsyte defines the master control system as a “smart home hub”. This hub will give service providers an opportunity to generate annuity and subscription revenue, such as security monitoring.

Wireless hubs enabling the smart connected home

Telsyte has determined that smart home automation systems are appealing to mainstream buyers, regardless of house type (house or apartment), ownership type (renters or owners), and house age.

Home owners are also positive about home automation with the majority of survey respondents believing that home automation systems can increase the value of homes.

According to Telsyte’s research, the successful centrepiece of home automation enablement will be a multi-purpose, multi-connected hub that is standards-based and manufacturer agnostic.

Telsyte senior research manager Sam Yip says these hubs will be controllable and programmable via the cloud and mobile computing devices such as tablets and smartphones.

Telsyte expected that by 2017, smart hubs – connectors for disparate networked devices – will be the largest segment of the smart home with nearly 40% of the total market value.

The findings are part of the Telsyte Australian Smart Home Automation Market Study 2014, the first comprehensive industry study of its kind for the local market. The independent study is based on interviews with key market participants and a survey of a representative sample of 1,018 consumers conducted in late 2013.

The Telsyte Australian smart home automation market provides market sizing and forecasts for the following ‘smart’ sub-segments:

• Smart Light Bulbs
• Home Wireless Sensors
• Smart Security (e.g. Sensors, locks, and doors)
• Smart Gardening (Monitoring and irrigation)
• Smart Connected Home Hubs