Just 10 years ago, if someone brought up the topic of home automation, chances are they were either a nerdy tinkerer who spent their weekends installing low-cost home automation kits from X-10, or they were someone with enough money to have a highly-customized home automation system from the likes of Crestron.
But not anymore.
Nowadays, home automation systems have become much better, less nerdy and more widely used, in large part due to the embrace of "smart home" services from the likes of
In fact, it's these new smart home service offerings from the big telco and cable providers that will help drive the smart home services market from under $2 billion worldwide in 2012 to $10.9 billion by 2017 according to a new report from NextMarket Insights.
So why is your local cable, Internet and phone provider getting into the home automation game? In large part because those same triple-play offerings they provide you are under attack from the likes of Internet video and voice over IP and smart home services provide a new and attractive new revenue stream.
Of course, companies like Comcast have been experimenting with offerings like home security for at least six or seven years, but only in the last couple years have cable and telcos embraced smart home services in a bigger way. This new love for the smart home has been helped along by the emergence of new software-powered services from companies such as iControl Networks and AlertMe, who provide a underlying "white-label" service to which your phone or cable company then can affix their own their brand name.
Other smart home platform providers such as Alarm.com have gone outside of the telco and cable provider channels and partnered with a network of home security dealers, riding their 2,500 security partners to over 1 million customers in North America.
But let's be clear - smart home services are more than just home security. Companies like Vivint (who partners with Alarm.com for security services) has also expanded aggressively into home energy management services in North America.
In Europe, utilities such as British Gas (UK) and Essent (The Netherlands) have used AlertMe's SmartEnergy service platform to provide energy management services such as remote energy monitoring utilizing a smartphone, tablet or web browser. AlertMe has also gained a foothold in the US by providing the underlying smart home platform for Lowe's Iris home control offering.
So the next time someone tries to impress you by whipping out their smartphone to show you how they can control their door locks or turn down their thermostat remotely, chances are they're subscribing to a smart home service from their local cable provider, phone company or electric utility, who are in turn powering their services with a little help from a new class of smart home service platform providers.
Michael Wolf is an analyst for NextMarket Insights. He invites you to download a complimentary executive summary of NextMarket Insights' new Smart Home report.
