infoTECH Feature

October 13, 2011

Home Automation Market Dominated by Software as a Service (SaaS) Providers: ABI Research

Software as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) providers dominate home automation systems (HAS) market with 1.3 million shipments in 2011, according to ABI Research (News - Alert).

Of the 1.8 million HAS shipped during the year, approximately 1.3 million will utilize open source technology from SaaS partners.

This follows a spate of well-documented forays into the home automation market by several renowned service providers.

For instance, Alarm.com (News - Alert) has signed partnerships with over 2,500 security dealers who are eager to deploy its platform in homes throughout North America. Its partnership with Vivint is also benefitting the company. At current rates, Vivint will have an installed base of 150,000 home security systems during 2011 – all of which utilize Alarm.com technology.

iControl Networks’ partners include ADT, Comcast, Rogers Communications, Time Warner (News - Alert) Cable, and Comporium Communications.

While many North American SaaS providers see home security as the preferred entry point into the home automation market, this is not the case in Europe, according to ABI Research.  

“European platform vendors such as There Corporation, AlertMe, and GreenWave Reality have tended to position their solutions more as home energy management systems first and foremost,” said Craig Foster, senior analyst, ABI Research, in a statement.

“As such, the majority of initial roll-outs are occurring in conjunction with utilities, rather than telcos or cable operators, as is predominantly the case in North America,” Foster added.

Recently, Gartner (News - Alert) announced that SaaS continues to penetrate the CRM market, accounting for nearly 24 percent of total CRM software market revenue. The number of CRM vendors that provide software as a service continues to grow. Subsegments of CRM software vendors, such as salesforce automation, have many vendor alternatives, while other segments, such as campaign management, have few.



Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell
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