Sumit Parab, Director of Product Management for UXP Systems, answers the following industry questions prior to the 2015 CONNECTIONS Europe event taking place 10-11 November in Amsterdam:

What challenges does Europe face with rolling out new smart home & connected entertainment services?

I believe the challenges that Europe will face are similar to those currently being experienced in North America.

Ensuring interoperability with multiple services from multiple vendors is key - right now the lack of standardization with various device protocols makes for a siloed experience. A true connected home experience needs the ability for the devices to be aware of each other and know how to react based on the information or actions of another device - the goal is to make a smart home, not a home of individually connected pieces. Service hubs are excellent to enable the discovery of services in the home and act as the brain for automation - but there are still challenges to ensure these hubs can communicate with all elements in the home.

There is also a need to improve the perceived usefulness of the connected home to the consumer.  In a survey of German consumers, about 88% of them lacked the awareness of the Internet of Things (Source: Deutsche Telekom June 2015). By increasing awareness of the space and educating the public on the potential and existing benefits, consumers will see the true value a connected home can deliver.

Along with the lack of awareness, price is another barrier for the customer. The current price-point for these devices place them out of the range for the average consumer. Key would be to lower the initial device costs to ensure mass-market adoption.

The IoT space also needs to build out a user-centric foundation for all of their services, ensuring personalization for all members of the household not just the household. The true value of a connected home is the ability to automate and cater to the individual’s preferences in the home and not treat the house as a single instance that is equal for everyone. 10 devices with 10 different onboarding processes, 10 sets of credentials, etc, can add up to a very complicated digital lifestyle.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing your company in the next 12 months?

The IoT market right now is still in its beginning stages, with a moving target on when the adoption and growth will be at scale. The small market size also brings fluidity to what consumers will value most in the near future. Ensuring that our company maintains its agility to support any possible market shifts will be key for us to keep managing effectively. I think this is where the agility of a startup pays off in comparison to the larger companies that are also competing in this space.

How will companies leverage the growth in the market in the next 12 months? What is the impact of the Internet Giants (Google, Amazon) getting involved in the market?

Growth brings about awareness as well as lower price points for hardware with the increase in scale - all positives for the consumer. The concern will be around standardization in communication and access to the data for the various devices that are released. As more devices come online - there needs to be a way for these devices to communicate with each other and share information to truly create useful experiences for the consumer.

It’s great to have the momentum of the Google, Apple and Amazons in the market as it fuels the awareness to users. The only thing we need to be wary of is the creation of separate ecosystems that may be created as these companies compete for integration into their systems. Competition can already be seen by Apple removing Nest from their stores as well as Amazon removing the ability to purchase Chromecasts or Apple TV from their storefronts.

Overall there is a need for information sharing across ecosystems either via software or the ability to support bridging between devices and services among these ecosystems. Having a service that is agnostic to these major ecosystems will be key for a truly valuable customer experience.

Sumit will be speaking at the panel session “IoT: Adding Value to the Smart Home Experience” 10 November at 13:30.

For more information on attending CONNECTIONS Europe, visit www.connectionseurope.com. 

Next: Integrating OTT Content with Pay-TV Services
Previous: Salutem: Companies need to focus on their own strengths and weaknesses

Be the first to leave a comment.

Have a comment? Login or create an account to start a discussion.