infoTECH Feature

August 17, 2011

ABI Research: Home Automation to Grow, But Mergers on the Cards

The current study,”Home Automation and Monitoring” by ABI Research (News - Alert), analyzes the market for home automation and security technologies and shows how the two segments are gradually intersecting.

With service providers entering the managed home automation market, ABI projects increased momentum in shipments of home automation systems. Numbers indicate that this will be well over 12 million shipments by 2016 as against just 1.8 million in 2011.

According to the study, there is no dearth of competitors in this burgeoning market: Verizon (News - Alert) with its basic and advanced version of Home Monitoring and control compete with global service providers such as Rogers Wireless in Canada and Orange (News - Alert), to name a few.

While Verizon offers a home automation control system based on technology from Motorola Mobility,

other service providers have come up with their own versions of home monitoring services that enable remote monitoring and even energy management applications.

While it is true that this emerging market is crowded with an influx of products that can do everything

imaginable, there are still substantial bottlenecks to entry. “Service providers are still facing significant challenges,” said Sam Lucero, practice director, M2M connectivity, in a press release.

Elaborating on the nature of the challenge, Lucero said, “Telco and cable operators now have to develop and deploy software management platforms to specifically enable the management of home monitoring services.”

Of course, according to Lucero, such a move will only result in swift consolidation within the small market with 4Home being acquired by Motorola (News - Alert) Mobility, iControl and uControl merging, and Xanboo being acquired by AT&T.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies.


Mini Swamy is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
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