Whether in the home, business or through city-wide applications, the smart technology market provides extremely diverse opportunities, requirements and challenges to improve residents’ homes, businesses, and city living.
Smart Homes
Statistics
- There are 258.54 million smart homes across the world. (EarthWeb)
- 60.4 million households in the US are actively using (at least once a month) smart home devices in 2023, an increase of 3% from 2022. (eMarketer)
- The number of households using smart home devices in 2023 represents 46.5% of the total number of households. (eMarketer)
- 23% of broadband households have three or more smart home devices in the US.
- Smart home devices are estimated to reach 64.1 million by 2025 with households increasing to 48.4% due to increased time spent at home and advancements made in technology, including improvements to natural language processing and improved integration among smart home devices. (Oberlo)
- Global smart home data usage up 21.5% in US. (Plume)
- 3 in 4 TV households now own a smart TV – up from 7 in 10 in 2021. (Hub Entertainment Research)
- 6 in 10 of all TVs are now smart TVs – up from half in 2021. (Hub Entertainment Research)
- Half of TV households have at least one remote with voice control, up from one-third in 2019. (Hub Entertainment Research)
- 4 in 10 homes with a voice remote say they use it “all the time” or “often”. (Hub Entertainment Research)
- Nearly half of all families interact with a smart home device monthly. (eMarketer)
- Millennials are willing to pay 20% or more for smart homes.
- Worldwide, households will spend $19.4B on security systems.
- Privacy and security issues remain one of the consumers’ top concerns when using smart home devices. (Oberlo)
- Overall, 1 in 8 homes report owning a VR device with gaming continuing to be the predominant reason. (Hub Entertainment Research)
- Compared to the first half of 2021 to 2022, homes have:
(Plume)- 55% more cameras
- 43% more smart doorbells
- 38% more home hubs
- 25% more smart light bulbs
- Globally, Amazon is the top brand leader with one or more IOT devices present in 41.35% of Plume households followed by Apple (30.47%) and Google (29.51%). (Plume)
Latest Smart Home Tech
Wi-Charge – TLC – Track-light Wireless Charger
Wi-Charge is a wireless power company that had a couple of innovation award winning products this year. The Track Light Charger (TLC) is a wireless power transmitter that fits into any standard track lighting track. It has a backup battery to transmit power to your wirelessly powered devices even if your track lights are turned off (for a while). The Wi-Qi is a wirelessly charged wireless charger. It’s a Qi charger plate that will charge any Qi devices (i.e., newer phones, wireless ear buds) but it doesn’t need a cord. It just sits on a table like a drink coaster and is powered wirelessly by what Wi-Charge calls “AirCord.” I assume you can also use it as a coaster, but you may not want to until you see if it heats the condensed water from your glass. Wi-Charge can also wirelessly power door locks that are otherwise very tricky to power except with batteries.
TalkSocket – PopSockets with Alexa
Talksocket is like PopSockets® with Alexa embedded. Of course, you can use Alexa with the Alexa app on your phone, but that requires opening the app. TalkSocket pairs with the app and gives you Alexa access all the time. It is wirelessly charged, so you don’t need to worry about batteries. It can stick on any case or be used with PopSockets compatible cases from OtterBox.
Nanoleaf – Smart Switches with Thread and Matter
Nanoleaf is famous for creating IoT connected triangles of light that you can attach to your walls. They are one of the first companies to sell Matter certified products. Their new Sense+ light switches use the Thread networking protocol and have motion and ambient light sensors. Their learning assistant, Nala, can make that tedious light switching a thing of the past.
Smart Cities
Smart cities, also commonly known as digital cities, intelligent cities, and wired cities, are urban areas that collect electronic data from citizens, devices, and assets to manage available resources more efficiently. The goal is to enhance knowledge and innovation, reduce costs and resource use, promote living and working environments, and increase the communication between government and citizens.
Statistics
- By 2040, 65% of the world’s population will be living in cities, with 1.3 million people moving into cities every day. (SmartCityHub)
- It’s predicted to have a CAGR of around 19% as the global IoT in smart cities grows from $130.6B in 2021 to $312.2B by 2026. (Nasdaq)
- By 2030, the global smart cities market will reach nearly $7 trillion, which translates into a CAGR of around 24%. (Grandview Research)
- City governments in the US alone will invest around $41 trillion over the next 20 years to upgrade their infrastructure and take advantage of IoT solutions. (SmartAmercia Challenge)
- Smart infrastructure segment is projected as one of the most lucrative functional areas of the smart cities market. (Allied Market Research)
- The Top 5 Smart City Ranking (Juniper Research)
1 Shanghai, China
2 Seoul, South Korea
3 Barcelona, Spain
4 Beijing, China
5 New York, US
- Connected consumer vehicles are estimated to grow from 162M in 2023 to 294M with commercial connected vehicles estimated to grow to 73M by 2027. (Juniper Research)
Latest Smart Cities Tech
Watchmile – Indoor Parking Guidance Using AI and CCTV
Watchmile has a system to retrofit the closed-circuit video system in your parking facility to create a state-of-the-art automated parking garage. It does this with video analytics. Using AI, it can determine which parking spaces are free and which cars are parked in the occupied spaces. It can also track obstacles and pedestrians. This sounds like a terrific way to automate parking and security without the need to install sensors in each parking space.
By J. Clarke Stevens, Shaw*
NoTraffic – IoT Mobility Traffic Platform
NoTraffic is all about traffic. Like the Watchmile system, they use video analytics to anonymously track pedestrians, cars, busses, trucks, bikes, emergency vehicles and any other traffic. They then use this information to optimize traffic flow. Pedestrians get priority so a light will stay red longer to allow a slower pedestrian to cross. Emergency vehicles will get green lights. Plug-n-play IoT cameras are installed at eye level at each entrance to the intersection to get the traffic data. Of course, you must decide if you want to let an IOT system solve the trolley problem. The system also supports vehicles with automobile-to-anything (A2X) technology. A2X wirelessly connects your car to traffic controls, monitors, and other ACARS as you travel. The anonymized data can then be fed to AI algorithms to control traffic or to observe what is happening. Streets can be closed, and traffic rerouted around construction. All the data is logged so patterns can be identified, and strategies improved.
By J. Clarke Stevens, Shaw*
AEye – Pedestrian Safety and Crowd Monitoring
AEye creates technology that uses lidar in a car-mounted system to automatically sense its environment. It can sense other cars, pedestrians, traffic lights, for example. AEye can be used to improve safety or to guide autonomous vehicles.
By J. Clarke Stevens, Shaw*
Resources
2023 Connected Home | Hub Entertainment Research
Media delivery and data collection never takes a break, whether consumers are watching a TV at night, using a smartphone during their commute, listening to a smart speaker while making lunch, or recording their exercise on a smart watch before breakfast. Understanding what consumers own and use is more important than ever for the ever-increasing list of stakeholders in the media world to make better informed strategy and investment decisions. Learn more here.
* Please note that any opinions, views, commentary or recommendations about these technologies related to the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and/or any products or services participating in the CES made by Clarke Stevens are his alone and do not represent opinions, views, commentary, recommendations of Shaw Communications Inc., its affiliates or its management (collectively, “Shaw”) about the CES and Shaw does not approve, recommend and endorse of any of the products or services participating in the CES.
