According to GfK data, in Europe about 26 percent of the 255 billion euro spent on Technical Consumer Goods this year will be for smart appliances like Visual cameras, Air treatment, TVs, Audio home systems, Robotic vacuum cleaners, Smart LEDs. GfK´s forecast indicates that the market for smart devices, excluding smartphones and smart watches, will grow by estimated 9 percent globally this year, up from 122 billion to 133 billion euro. Penetration of smart devices ranges in households. Smart TVs accounted in the first half of 2019 for 80 percent of TVs purchased in Germany, UK, France, Italy, and Spain, while robot vacuum cleaners for about 12 percent or 4 percent in the case of dishwashers.
In the first half of this year, Smart Appliances recorded a 42 percent value growth, while Smart Energy and Lighting increased by 25 percent. The trend is not so positive for Smart Entertainment & Connectivity, the largest smart category, that accounted for 6.3 billion euro of the turnover, but shows a 0 percent annual growth in the January to June 2019 period in the five European markets (Germany, UK, France, Italy, and Spain).
But what are consumers looking for when buying a smart appliance?
GfK Consumer research indicates that 53 percent of respondents would like optimized energy usage, 48 percent say ‘yes’ to remote home monitoring, and 41 percent would prefer their home appliances to communicate with each other.
Consumers would also pay more for solutions that really simplify their lives.
«It is not about whether or not Smart Home will happen, – explains Igor Richter, GfK expert for the telecom and smart domestic appliances industry – it is about how to remove barriers for its adoption. We are already witnessing the smart future today. Well-crafted individual solutions within a common ecosystem possess a tangible opportunity to bridge to contextually aware intelligent homes of the future.»
