Issue link: https://te.mouser.com/i/1501303
Smart Homes A Look into Today's Trends and Opportunities APPLIANCES / TREND PAPER 7 A Few Challenges As manufacturers look to support the growth of fully-equipped smart homes, they need to bear in mind a few challenges that impact consumer acceptance and design issues. • High installation and maintenance costs: Installing advanced features and integrating technologies, including IoT, AI, machine language, block down, and others, into a fully-equipped smart home, is currently an expense that only a more limited, high-net- worth segment of the consumer landscape can afford. In the same vein, the high-cost of converting an ordinary home into a smart home due to its complex set-up, creates another limit on current consumer acceptance. • Compatibility issues of smart devices from various manufacturers or vendors: The smart home market is currently fragmented with many players developing various systems that use a range of technologies. While it is easy to integrate and link up devices from the same manufacturer or vendor, connecting systems from multiple players is a time-consuming job that not only results in a variety of incompatibility issues but more critically, limits functionality, as well as reliability. • Faster cooking is the main purchase driver behind the purchase of smart appliances. Consumers want more time to multitask while cooking and enjoy a less exhausting and more sustainable overall cooking experience. This makes faster cooking the number one priority in choosing smart appliances. In addition, other purchase drivers include allowing for easier clean-up; learning how to cook; and reducing the need for multiple appliances. 9 • Improving food quality is an area of interest. Consumers are looking to increase cooking efficiency and precision, plan meals intelligently, and generally improve their health and wellness. As a result, concentrating on enhancing food recognition and integrating that capability into kitchen appliances such as full-size ovens and refrigerators, is an area of growth and opportunity. Taking a Look at Smart Kitchens With smart kitchens anticipated to be the fastest growing segment in the smart home category, it is important to take note of the specific trends that are driving its expansion. 6 Interest in smart appliances all starts with the buying public. While there are generational differences, all age groups are interested in adding smart appliances to their home over the next five years: 9 • Gen Z (91%) • Millennials (91%) • Gen X (80%) • Boomers (67%)