Daniel J SaitFollowing the technology integrator survey that was conducted in 2017, CEDIA has launched the report that looks at the trends and services in the home technology market.
CEDIA says the results show an industry anticipating healthy annual growth in turnover this year.
CEDIA partnered with market research company, Futuresource, to conduct the research into the UK professional smart home market, inviting both members and non-members to take part in the survey. There were 76 questions included in the survey focusing on business functions, installation types, equipment choices, the size of the workforce, and the areas that are most important for their businesses.
“We are pleased to announce the results of our research project,” comments Matt Nimmons, MD of CEDIA EMEA. “This extensive survey provides the industry with strong comparative data and has helped to identify vital market trends and offer a greater understanding of the UK smart home market. The findings for 2016 – 2017 show that our industry is extremely prosperous, as well as providing insight into future changes and likely developments moving forwards.”
Key findings include
- Average total gross annual turnover per installation company was £1.3m in 2016, up by 33% on 2012. Participants projected this to rise by a further 17% in 2017.
- Integrators report growth in the higher value projects as a share of their business. Projects costing £50K or more accounted for 26% of projects in 2016, compared to 19% in 2013.
- In contrast, installations £3K or below have fallen by one-third. In 2013, projects of this size represented 18% of all residential installations. In 2016, this shrunk to 12% and in 2017, it is expected to be 7%.
- There has been a surge in the number of projects that include security systems. The average number of projects completed by integrators per year involving security has doubled since 2013.
- Installation companies are increasingly offering maintenance and aftercare. Already 77% offer this, and nearly three-quarters of the remainder expect to add this to their portfolio within two years.
- There has been a rapid uptake and popularisation of voice control installations — almost 4 in 10 companies have installed these systems in the past year and integrators expect this to grow to as many as 8 in 10 companies within the next two years.
The most obvious takeaway here is the shrinking at the bottom-end of the entry level part of the market, and growth of the top-end. Although it depends what you class as top-end, different companies will feel ‘differently’ about where that line is drawn.
If those stats tell us anything it’s what we have always known; what we offer as an industry is of high-quality, but that does not mean it should only be available to those with huge bank balances, but it should never be sold short. We have to find ways of making what we offer essential so middle earners will want it.
Security is indeed a big growth area, we get far more press releases and enquiries from that sector than we used to as companies identify the opportunity. However, this does not mean people want their homes to be like prisons, the opposite is true in most cases, systems need to deliver peace of mind but be in the background.
The full market research report is free to CEDIA members and costing £499.00 to non-members. A free abridged version of the report is also available to non-members who participated in the survey. Interested parties should contact CEDIA direct or take a look at the association’s website.