"home automation" articles

Any time you ask someone about the great things they saw at CES, you need to take their response with a grain (or heaping tablespoon) of salt. The issue is scope. The Consumer Electronics Show is far too big for any one person to get an accurate perspective given all of the keynotes, workshops press events, booths, theaters, and corporate suites to be navigated over a handful of days. For me, I try to sneak away from the suites for a few hours to track down major trends, look into...

The flood of IoT products and services at CES crossed all categories of the smart home space. However, the lineup of smart door lock offerings generated plenty of buzz on its own. According to Parks Associates research, 7% of U.S. broadband households own at least one smart door lock and purchase intentions for these devices hit 21% in Q4 2018. Further, 13% of broadband households in the U.S. are “very likely” (rating of 6-7 on a 7-point scale) to purchase one of these devices over...

As the popularity of smart home products continues to grow, so too do technological advancements in artificial intelligence. Hollywood icons like KITT (Knight Rider) and Pat (Smart House) actually do exist, although much less dramatically. AI has become an integral part of the smart home ecosystem and service providers are making moves to increase their products’ capabilities and learning methods. Recently, Amazon announced that their smart speaker, the Echo, and Alexa will be...

Prior to Parks Associates’ 13th-annual CONNECTIONS Europe: Strategies for the Smart Home and Consumer Iot conference, Kristian Järnefelt, EVP Consumer Cyber Security, F-Secure Corporation shared insights with the analyst team to discuss opportunities and challenges facing the European smart home market. Kristian will be participating on the Data Security and Analytics: AI Challenges and Opportunities panel on Tuesday, November 13 at 15:15. Panelists joining him on this session...

Submitted by Open Connectivity Foundation. The security of Internet of Things devices has always been one of the top priorities of the Open Connectivity Foundation. As more devices come online every day, the amount of cybersecurity risks continues to climb – from privacy issues to theft of personal data. That’s why OCF is constantly working to improve the security features of devices. These are included before the device even goes online, giving consumers the peace of...

The biggest threat in home fires isn’t visible on the surface – it’s actually hidden in the walls. Arc faults are responsible for 82% of electrical fires and there are multiple factors that can cause them. With new smart home technologies like smart plugs and smart smoke detectors the risk from arc fault fires are severely lowered as these products can detect and even prevent these fires from happening. According to Tom Kerber , Senior Director IoT Strategy, Parks Associates,...

According to Parks Associates research, the percentage of broadband households not intending to purchase a smart home device due to security and privacy concerns has increased from 21% in Q1 2017 to 32% in Q1 2018. Further, more than one-fourth of U.S. broadband households strongly agree that it’s impossible to keep their personal data away from unauthorized users. Security and privacy concerns are clearly becoming top of mind for many connected consumers. As the number of...

As the Parks Associates team gears up for our annual Connected Health Summit next week, we’re reviewing some of our latest research on trends in consumer health concerns.  One of the most striking trends is the rising level of consumers who report concern that stress and anxiety will cause their health to worsen. A stunning quarter of U.S. broadband households are “very concerned” (rating 6-7 on a 7-point scale) about stress and anxiety worsening their health. Said another way,...