Integration will define the 2019 smart home

IDC says the global market for smart home devices will grow 26.9% year over year in 2019 to 832.7 million units shipped. The analyst predicts consumers to adopt multiple devices within their homes, which will result in 1.6 billion devices shipped by 2023.

“2018 was all about getting products into consumers’ homes and both Amazon and Google excelled at this through low-cost smart speakers and multiple bundles across device categories,” said Jitesh Ubrani research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. “However, 2019 will be more about tying the various devices together to form a more cohesive experience and more importantly, layering in additional services.”

The smart home will be dominated by the likes of Amazon and Google, with Apple following suite. The popularity of iOS and macOS devices combined with the availability of Apple apps/services on non-Apple products will help the company slowly entice more consumers into their ecosystem while also attracting third parties to build compatible devices.

“One important trend to watch is how smart assistants become integrated throughout the home,” said Ramon T. Llamas, research director for IDC’s Consumer IoT Program. “Smart assistants will act as the point of contact with multiple smart home devices and essentially become the cornerstone of the smart home experience. Already we’ve been seeing that with smart speakers and this will eventually move on to appliances, thermostats, and all sorts of video entertainment.”