The connected home is finally taking off with more than 40 per cent of Australian households having an IoT device. This is up from 29 per cent a year ago, according to emerging technology research firm Telsyte.
Telsyte estimates that the average Australian household this year has 13.7 internet connected devices. It estimates this will increase to 30.7 by 2021, with 14.0 of these being IoT devices.
IoT devices are connected appliances, lights,, sensors and other devices that let consumers control, monitor and enhance their lifestyles, typically via mobile apps.
Telsyte says that by 2021, in total, Australian households are expected to have 311 million connected devices, of which nearly half are expected to be new IoT home devices.
In collating its research, Telsyte analysed smart energy, smart security and smart lifestyle products, and the installation and services that underpin them.
It estimates that the collective value of the IoT home market in Australia will be $4.7bn by 2021, a sharp rise from the $377M last year.
“The Internet of things at home will touch many industries as businesses use smart automation to create new products and services for their customers” Telsyte managing director Foad Fadaghi says. “The challenge will be to take households on the automation journey while handling privacy, security and upfront costs concerns.”
IoT home devices too will interact with the cloud and use cloud-based machine learning to provide lifestyle benefits. Telsyte says this might be a voice activated hub that understands a regular behaviour and automatically prompts the user without being pre-programmed to give an alert.
According to Telsyte research, despite the expected rapid adoption, barriers such as concerns around cyber security and privacy will still need to be overcome. Half of Australians say they are worried about security when “everything will be connected to the Internet in the future”.
The IoT sector is expected to be a battleground for telecommunications companies, retailers, energy suppliers, insurance companies and category specialists all seeking to differentiate themselves in price competitive industries, against the backdrop of widespread rollout of NBN services, online retail competition and rapid digitisation of consumer lifestyles, Telsyte says.
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