IDC: Global smart home device shipments to reach 939.7 million units in 2022

(IDC) recently released the results of its latest tracking research project. In this report, it mainly focuses on the market size and forecast of home IP connected devices, which include smart speakers, digital media adapters, lighting equipment, thermostats and more. Historical data is accompanied by five-year forecasts, providing insight into upcoming trends and changing markets. While tracking historical data, forecasts will also be made for future trends and evolving markets. As of 2017, the global shipments of smart home appliances reached 433.1 million units, an increase of 27.6% over the previous year. Looking ahead, with market shipments reaching 939.7 million units in 2022, IDC expects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.5%. The smart speaker category, including the Amazon Echo and Google Home, will remain the fastest-growing category throughout the forecast. Meanwhile, with the exception of video entertainment products, most other categories will see double-digit CAGRs in shipments over the same period. 'Smart appliances are still in their infancy, but we can already see a major shift in the thinking of consumers and manufacturers,' said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst at IDC Mobile Device Tracker. 'As hardware manufacturers race to compete with Alexa, Siri or Assistants such as Google Assistant build interoperability and are therefore less concerned with central hub and app-centric interfaces. On the other hand, consumers, while still somewhat hesitant to anthropomorphic assistants, are beginning to expect more natural user interfaces to Connecting a multitude of smart home appliances.' Category Spotlight is expected to witness a CAGR of 8.3 per unit shipments of video entertainment devices (including smart TVs, digital media adapters and other IP-connected video devices) over the forecast period 2017-2022 %. These devices are expected to account for three-quarters of the value of the entire smart home appliance market, and TVs will have the highest average selling price (ASP) among them. In 2017, the TV industry leaders were Samsung and LG, while the category leaders for digital media adapters were Amazon, Google and Roku, in that order. With major new brands such as Apple entering the market, smart speakers with built-in smart assistants have been in the spotlight recently. In addition, Amazon and Google were quick to respond, by being the first to offer more models and prices, and by partnering with numerous other brands to launch speakers with built-in Alexa or Google Assistant. What remains to be seen is how long the partners can survive, as hardware sales are the smallest part of the overall revenue associated with this category. Connected lighting products, such as those from Philips, General Electric, IKEA, and others, have been somewhat of a gateway for consumers to enter the larger smart home appliance market. The lighting category has a lot of future potential as prices drop rapidly and bundled with smart speakers as entry-level smart home appliance solutions. By the end of 2022, IDC expects this category to be worth more than $3.5 billion. Thermostats, such as those offered by Nest or Ecobee, are expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.8% through 2022 in unit shipments. Despite the high growth rate, IDC expects it to be the smallest category as most households will have a single thermostat and a large part of the world (eg Asia Pacific/Middle East) do not use standalone thermostats, but rely on those built into air conditioners or Thermostat for heating unit. Shipments of other smart home appliances such as connected devices, sprinkler systems and other small appliances are expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.2% from 2017-2022. Many analog objects, such as traditional appliances, have long replacement cycles, and the overall appeal of smart appliances is expected to be limited in the future.