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North American Home Automation Markets Expect Steady Growth from High and Mid-Range Homes (29/11/2006)

Increasing awareness and robust new construction activity have helped propel the growth of the Home Automation Market. Participants engage themselves in partnerships in order to overcome the challenge of the non-existence of a standard protocol. Also, the formation of associations helps increase penetration levels due to more stress on end user and installer education. With a constant demand from the retrofit market the North American Home Automation Markets is bound to experience further growth.

Frost & Sullivan finds that the North American Home Automation Markets earned revenues of $1,268.9 million in 2005 and estimates this to reach $2,442.1 million by 2012.

To increase awareness levels and improve on the penetration levels, market participants are forming associations and channels through which they can educate the end users. These marketing campaigns and word of mouth publicity gradually increase the awareness levels among homeowners, which, in turn, lead to the increase in sales of these systems. The North American home automation markets will witness higher growth rates from participants making affordable solutions and concentrating on mid-range homes.

"The ever increasing awareness among homeowners about the benefits offered by the home automation market has driven the growth of this market," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst David Lee. "This increase in awareness is mainly due to the entertainment aspect. The manufacturers, to some extent, have been able to educate the homeowners and make an offering as a package along with the entertainment."

The lack of proper training for installers affects the sales of home automation systems. Proper installation is essential for a system to function effectively. Hence, training for installers about the products becomes imperative.

"A properly installed system can further improve the potential of the home automation market," explains Lee. "Word of mouth publicity about the benefits of the system can certainly help in driving the sales. This can effectively occur only when the system performs efficiently which is dependent on its installation. Therefore, this challenge needs to be addressed immediately in order to further increase the market potential of home automation systems."

Industry associations and conglomerations must arrange for necessary resources to train the system integrators, contractors and installers. Although manufacturers do train individual dealers, training under one roof would definitely benefit the home automation system sales.

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