The Internet of Things (IoT) in the home is already a multibillion-dollar global industry, as premiumisation, efficiency and technology adoption have encouraged households to embrace smart solutions for individual areas of the home – the kitchen, bathroom and living room – and provide relevant case studies that reflect current trends in smart-home solutions.
What is IoT in the home?
In a home setting, IoT is all about comfort, convenience and ease. IoT-enabled devices strive to deliver analytics and access, in order to save time, save costs or just help users understand the digital world around them better. The sky is the limit in terms of innovation, which is why the IoT market has so much hype around it, attracting almost all big-name brands in the household space.
The kitchen is the most lucrative domestic area for IoT
IoT is driving the kitchen space beyond simple connectivity and apps to platforms that connect the cooking, storage, commerce, planning and every other aspect of the kitchen into a holistic system.
The high prices demanded for connectivity are yet to be justified in terms of practical usage, making IoT-based kitchen appliances still a relatively niche range of products.
IoT will play a major role in advancing the value of kitchen products globally, particularly as consumers increasingly look to upgrade older domestic appliances and move up the product food chain.
IoT in the bathroom
The bathroom remains a fairly underdeveloped space for IoT devices. This is partly due to the limited number of appliances there and a lack of awareness among consumers of actual available products.
Countries that suffer from severe water shortages provide major markets for consumer-based IoT systems that limit water waste. A major challenge for IoT in the bathroom is installation. Installers need to be as comfortable with network architecture and connectivity as they are with drainage and soil pipes.
Future households will possess multiple IoT-enabled devices
A typical household in an advanced economy today already possesses several IoT-enabled devices, such as multiple smartphones, a video game console, a smart TV and a desktop computer or laptop.
