Olaf Lohr, Director of Business Development, sonnen, provided insight on several key industry trends ahead of Parks Associates’ 21st-annual CONNECTIONS™ Conference, which will be held May 23-25 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport:

What does the industry need to do to speed up the slow growth of overall smart home adoption?

It seems like the Amazon Echo, Google Home, or Apple Home, are driving the adoption of a voice activated platforms which lets you add devices easily. I believe this is the threshold, or the breakthrough.

Similar to the app stores: once you have the centerpiece (smart phone), more and more apps will be developed – even applications we did not know we needed.

What are the best use cases for consumers and the Internet of Things?

The interesting thing about a connected home is that we are not lacking anything critical or essential without the IoT – but it offers the potential to do things differently or more wholesome than before – like setting scenes which include lights, shades, temperature, audio, video.

That also applies to energy savings. With a smart home, you could achieve the same comfort much faster, and more efficiently with one command.

What is the biggest driver for the connected consumer market?

Curiosity: How can we make our busy life easier and more comfortable? How can we rid ourselves of repetitive tasks?

What are the greatest obstacles to the adoption of connected products and services in the home?

Cost and reliability of control. If customers find that the setup, maintenance and troubleshooting requires too much work, I think they will abandon the technology.

Lohr will speak on the session “Energy Management Solutions: Moving the Market Forward” on Wednesday, May 24 at 10:30 a.m. Joining Lohr on the panel are speakers from Whisker Labs, EnergyHub, and ecobee.

For more information on CONNECTIONS™, visit www.connectionsus.com or register by clicking here.

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