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The latest report looking into the consumer adoption and attitudes to connected home technology has been released today. The report, prepared in conjunction with GfK, covers the lockdowns and documents the shifting behaviours during the pandemic which saw more of us staying at home and interacting with the technology in our homes.

Read the report here: The state of the Connected Home 2021: a year like no other

Connected devices have played an essential role in keeping us entertained, productive and connected with each other during a very trying year and we are pleased to see so much adoption of tech that helped make life a bit easier for many during lockdown. Consumers have adopted this tech in large numbers and we have seen in the growth in personal fitness devices and what can broadly be labelled as lifestyle/wellbeing products.

Smart home tech also has a huge role to play in decarbonisation and managing energy better and with lockdown it is no surprise to see smart lighting and smart thermostats performing well too.

As well as looking at intentions to buy and real-world sales data, GfK also asked consumers at the barriers and problems they face with smart home tech.

Cost and privacy remain the biggest barriers to adoption, though interoperability of devices has now reached a point that it is now a mainstream concern. The hypothesis is that with us spending so much time at home in the last year consumers have been using their devices more and realised that they aren’t talking to each other in a way they expected.

While the report shows more understanding of tech, there is still some ambiguity on the real-world benefits of devices with many not really getting what these devices can do for them beyond entertainment.

Regarding cost we have also started to see price impacts relating to the semiconductor shortage and shipping capacity constraints. With container shipping now 10x more expensive than what it was and well documented shortages in semiconductors, prices are rising for devices and will do for the rest of 2021.

The report also makes several recommendations to industry and government on what we think needs to happen to increase adoption of connected home tech and these are:

• For industry and retail: “Smart home” is familiar to consumers, so the firms should be on  communicating the tangible consumer benefits of smart and connected devices and to reassure around ease of use, interoperability, and privacy.
• For device manufacturers and product designers: With interoperability a mainstream concern, it needs to be a priority for manufacturers and not addressing these issues risks reducing demand, increasing frustration and creating a perception that smart home tech does not meet expectations.
• For government and regulators: Regulation and policy on product safety, cyber security and net zero needs to be aligned and the various policies and strategies need to complement each other, be consistent and have shared goals.
• For government and regulators: Government should promote smart appliance adoption in the UKs future product policy framework. Smart appliances that save energy and offer safety advantages should be seen as routes to meeting environmental and product safety targets so should be the same.
• For government and regulators: There needs to be a stronger understanding of how smart home tech can play a key role in delivering a fully flexible energy system.

Read the full report here