Kevin Meagher, SVP Business Development, ROC-Connect, provides insight on several key industry trends for Parks Associates’ 11th-annual CONNECTIONS™ Summit conference, which will be held January 5 at CES 2017 in Las Vegas:

What is the most important next step to engage consumers in smart home solutions, connected entertainment services, and/or value-added services like tech support and connected health?

Raising consumer awareness is the most important next step.  Most consumers have little knowledge and understanding of the benefits of smart home solutions.

What changes do you expect to take place in the next year in the smart home and connected consumer markets?

Increase consumer awareness through continued innovation in the market.  In addition, we will start to see continued growth in the existing channels but new players will come to the market; for example, insurance providers.

What is the biggest driver for the connected consumer market?

Safety and peace of mind will continue to be the big consumer drivers.  These are the most easily understood and recognizable value propositions to consumers.

What are the biggest technology innovations impacting the connected home market?

Ironically, the biggest technological innovation will be taking technology out of the conversation with consumers.  It takes good technology to make products simple, affordable, and scalable.   Making things easy to install, at price points that mass-market can afford are critical success factors.  Equally, the technology has to deliver open standards so that we can realize the vision of the smart home with interoperability rather than simply creating smart devices that don't work with each other. 

In my view, the big challenge is not technology, it’s business models.

Meagher will speak on the session “IoT and Smart Home: Changing Business Models” on January 5 at 3:45 p.m. Other speakers on the panel include Vivint Smart Home, Target, Samsung Electronics America, TROVE, and American Family Ventures.

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