In the so-called generation of the "internet of things," high tech house hold items seemed to dominate the consumer industry. With all the ads and other promotional strategies, things seems to be going good in the mainstream. However, despite the said catchy ads and persuasive marketing approaches, smart-home gadgets are still indeed a hard sell in the mainstream consumer market.
In the advent of cool gadgets and devices, smart-home gadgets tried to penetrate the consciousness of consumers all over the world. With leading brands and large tech companies in the forefront of the campaign, these gadgets were expected to have an accelerated purchases. However, it seems like most consumers are not yet ready to adopt to a more high tech way of dealing with some home concern, such as smoke detectors and thermostats which are directly controlled from any phone or PC's.
According to a smart-home start-up company whose recent marketing approach was altered due to the lack of demand in the market, selling smart-home gadgets are quite challenging. Dave Bottoms, chief operating officer of PEQ even stated via realtor that, "Last year, there was a great deal of optimism and bullishness around home automation. The reality is it is a lot harder and tougher than everybody imagined."
Home automation has not yet been fully embraced by most consumers. There are still some issues that need to be addressed by manufacturers in order to win the trust of every consumer all around the world. In a survey done with 28 countries, which included 28,000 consumers, Accenture LLP revealed that 47% of respondents pointed out to security and privacy issues as their main concern for not adopting to such technology, reported realtor.
18 percent of the said participants even abandoned the said use of technology accordingly for the lack of security guarantees. They are afraid that the smart-home gadgets which are being controlled through other wireless devices may be susceptible of being hacked. But despite the said concerns and doubts surrounding the security features of most smart-home gadgets, the Consumer Technology Association still had predicted a growth of 21% to 8.9 million units in 2016, said realtor.
