Smart Home Landscape 2015 - Sample Report

About VisionMobile ™
VisionMobileTM is the leading research company in the apps economy and mobile business models. Our research helps
clients track developer trends through the largest, most global developer surveys.
Developer Economics is our semi-annual industry research series, tracking app developer trends, attitudes, experiences
and monetization by region.
Our mantra: distilling market noise into market sense.
VisionMobile Ltd.
90 Long Acre, Covent Garden,
London WC2E 9RZ
+44 845 003 8742
www.visionmobile.com/blog
Follow us on twitter: @visionmobile
Term of re-use of the report
1. License Grant Single User.
Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, VisionMobile hereby grants you, the named user, a non-exclusive, non- transferable
license to the Report. You may not distribute the Report within your organisation, publicly, or to any other organisation or third party, or
to any or publicly accessible internet resource (such as Dropbox or Slideshare). Additionally, this License does not provide any right to you
to sub-license the Report to other parties.
2. License Grant Team User.
Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, VisionMobile hereby grants you, a maximum of 5 named users, a non-exclusive, non-
transferable license to the Report. You may not distribute the Report within your organisation, publicly, or to any other organisation or
third party, or to any or publicly accessible internet resource (such as Dropbox or Slideshare). Additionally, this License does not provide
any right to you to sub-license the Report to other parties.
3. License Grant Enterprise.
Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, VisionMobile hereby grants you an organisational non-exclusive, non-transferable
license to distribute the report within your organisation and to any fully owned Affiliate organisations. You may not distribute the Report
publicly, or to any other organisation or third party, or to any or publicly accessible internet resource (such as Dropbox or Slideshare).
Additionally, this License does not provide any right to you to sub-license the Report to other parties.
4. Representations, Warranties and Disclaimer
VisionMobile believes the statements contained in this publication to be based upon information that we consider reliable, but we do not
represent that it is accurate or complete and it should not be relied upon as such. Opinions expressed are current opinions as of the date
appearing on this publication only and the information, including the opinions contained herein, are subject to change without notice. Use
of this publication by any third party for whatever purpose should not and does not absolve such third party from using due diligence in
verifying the publication’s contents. VisionMobile disclaims all implied warranties, including, without limitation, warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
5. Limitation on Liability.
VisionMobile, its affiliates and representatives shall have no liability for any direct, incidental, special, or consequential damages or lost
profits, if any, suffered by any third party as a result of decisions made, or not made, or actions taken, or not taken, based on this
publication.
6. Termination.
This License and the rights granted hereunder will terminate automatically upon any breach by you of the terms of this License.
Copyright © VisionMobile 2015 - v.1.0
Content
1. The rise of Internet of Things developers
2. The role of developers in the Smart Home market
3. The landscape of Smart Home platforms and APIs
4. The profile of Smart Home developers
5. Extra – 8 likely Smart Home platform winners
profiled
Also by VisionMobile
Find out more at visionmobile.com/reports
The Industrial IoT Landscape
2015
IoT Developer and Platform
Landscape 2015
Cross-Platform Tools 2015 Databoard
Want access to all Premium reports?
Get an annual subscription!

ABOUT THE REPORT
Get the full report for more data and insights
or contact VisionMobile for more details.
http://vmob.me/SmartHome15Buy
9TH
EDITION DEVELOPER ECONOMICS
3,150+ IOT DEVELOPERS SURVEYED
1,000+ SMART HOME DEVELOPERS
140+ COUNTRIES COVERED
40+ SMART HOME PLATFORMS ANALYZED
1.5M SMART HOME DEVELOPERS IN THE WORLD TODAY
1,000+ SMART HOME DEVELOPERS IN OUR SURVEY
Key questions that this report answers:
Why are developers key to unlock the Smart Home market?
Who is playing in the Smart Home platform space?
Who’s winning? What are the most promising and most popular
Smart Home developer platforms?
Why should home automation incumbents fear a new class of
Smart Home ecosystem players?
What are the backgrounds and motivations of Smart Home
developers?
Through which channels can I most effectively reach out to
Smart Home developers?

TABLE OF CONTENTS
About the authors ............................................................ 3!
About this report ............................................................. 5!
Key insights .................................................................... 6!
The rise of internet of things developers.............................. 8!
Developers are migrating to IoT fast ........................................... 8!
Great IoT platforms offer more than just technology ................... 9!
The window of opportunity for IoT platforms is open................ 10!
Smart Home is the most popular vertical for IoT developers ...... 11!
The role of developers in the Smart Home market...............12!
Current Smart Home solutions have hit a ceiling....................... 12!
Why developers are key to unlock the Smart Home market........ 13!
The future Smart Home: challenge for incumbents, opportunity
for newcomers ......................................................................... 14!
New touchpoints and user interfaces...................................... 15!
The nature of Smart Home “apps”........................................ 16!
An unsolved challenge: device lifecycle management .............. 17!
New business models............................................................ 17!
A shifting value chain............................................................ 18!
Crossing the boundaries of the Smart Home.......................... 19!
Today Smart Home, tomorrow Smart Office............................. 20!
The landscape of Smart Home platforms and APIs ............. 21!
Who’s playing?......................................................................... 21!
Who’s winning?........................................................................ 25!
Creating value by making sense of data ..................................... 26!
The IoT value stack predicts platform winners .......................... 26!
The role of Smart Home standards ........................................... 28!
The profile of Smart Home developers .............................. 29!
Smart Home is the most popular vertical… but not yet professional
............................................................................................... 29!
Smart Home is device centric ................................................... 30!
Smart Home is more than just consumers ................................. 32!
Smart Home developers cross vertical boundaries...................... 32!
How to reach Smart Home developers ...................................... 33!
Conclusion .................................................................... 35!
Methodology.................................................................. 37
8 likely Smart Home winners: Company profiles ................ 39

IoT Report Series | The Smart Home Landscape 2015 | © VisionMobile 2015 | All rights reserved | Report sample
Get in touch or purchase the full report at: vmob.me/SmartHome15 5
LIST OF GRAPHS & FIGURES
1. IoT developer interest in 7 IoT markets (targeted verticals,
planning to target)
2. 5 examples of how consumer technology invades every
industry
3. The 6 types of Smart Home APIs and platforms
4. The Smart Home API and platform landscape 2015
(taxonomy and market map of 40+ platforms)
5. Adoption of 11 Smart Home platforms by Smart Home
developers
6. Smart Home platforms in the IoT value stack
7. Developer segment mix of Smart Home developers,
compared to other IoT developers
8. Smart Home developers by project type and by involvement
in hardware development
9. Smart Home developers by target audience
10. Popularity of 6 other IoT verticals among Smart Home
developers
11. Popularity of 12 sources of information for Smart Home
developers

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Stijn Schuermans
Senior Business
Analyst
Michael Vakulenko
Strategy Director
Christina Voskoglou
Director of Research
and Operations
Stijn is the lead Internet of Things researcher in
the VisionMobile team since 2012. He has
authored over 20 reports and research notes on
mobile and the Internet of Things. He focuses on
understanding how technology becomes value-
creating innovation, how business models affect
market dynamics, and the consequences of this
for corporate strategy.
Stijn holds an engineering master degree and an
MBA. He has over 10 years’ experience as an
engineer, product manager, strategist and
business analyst.
You can reach Stijn at:
stijn@visionmobile.com
@stijnschuermans
Michael has over 18 years’ experience in mobile
and telecom starting from working on first
experimental 3G systems in Qualcomm. Later on
Michael was part of several startups developing
products in the areas of wireless, enterprise
networking and mobile apps.
At VisionMobile Michael works at the cross
section of business models, economics and
technology where he leads strategy practice for
software-centric business models in mobile,
Internet of Things and Connected Car.
You can reach Michael at:
michael@visionmobile.com
@mvakulenko
Christina leads the analyst team and oversees all
VisionMobile data projects from methodology to
analysis and insights generation. She is also
behind VisionMobile’s developer segmentation
research, as well as the Developer Economics
reports and DataBoard subscription services.
Christina has more than 16 years of experience in
statistical consulting, BI design and business
forecasting. She holds an MSc in Statistics from
the London School of Economics (LSE) and a
BSc in Economics & Statistics from the
University of Bath.
You can reach Christina at:
christina@visionmobile.com
@ChristinaVoskog

INTRODUCTION
The Smart Home Landscape 2015 report is part of Developer
Economics - the leading research program on software
developers and the app economy, tracking developer experiences
across platforms, revenues, apps, languages, tools, APIs,
segments and regions.
We surveyed 3,150+ IoT developers from 140+ countries in our
Q2 2015 Developer Economics survey. The data from this
survey, the largest research to date on IoT developers, give us a
unique perspective at how the Internet of Things developer
ecosystem is evolving. This research report delves into data on
the 1,000+ of those developers that are active in Smart Home.
The online survey was translated in 7 languages (Chinese,
French, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish) and
promoted by more than 70 leading community and media
partners within the app development and IoT industry. We
corrected for regional bias and segment distribution bias across
our outreach channels. For more information about our
methodology, please get in touch.
We surveyed 3,150+ IoT developers in our Q2 2015 Developer
Economics survey. The data from this survey, the largest
research to date on IoT developers, give us a unique perspective
at how the Internet of Things developer ecosystem is evolving.
This research report delves into data on the 1,000+ of those
developers that are active in Smart Home.
The Smart Home is the most popular sector in the Internet of
Things. Close to 1.5 million developers are trying their hand at
Smart Home technology today. But can Smart Home live up to
the hyped promises?
The Smart Home market has not yet reached mainstream buyers.
For consumers, solutions are often too expensive, too complex or
simply not useful enough to justify the purchase. The Smart
Home Landscape 2015 report explains the critical role that
developers will play in creating a mainstream Smart Home
market. We profile said Smart Home developers in detail to
understand their background and motivation.
Secondly, we show how Smart Home platforms can empower
developers. We list who’s playing the platform space, and more
interestingly, who’s winning. Our data identifies which platforms
are the most popular among Smart Home developers. Most
platforms today focus on providing technology, but a few jump
out of the mold. We demonstrate how these newcomers form an
existential threat to the existing home automation market.
In the following sections, you can get a flavor of what to expect
with a few of the key insights from the Smart Home Landscape
2015 report.

SMART HOME DEVELOPERS: FROM HOBBY TO LIVELIHOOD
Close to 1.5 million IoT developers are currently working on Smart
Home projects. Smart Home is the most popular IoT vertical in our
survey. That’s a lot of innovation potential!
Unfortunately, very few Smart Home developers are building market-
ready products.
Out of all Smart Home developers, 70% are involved in the Internet
of Things as a hobby or a side project. Only 30% are doing IoT in a
professional capacity. More than a third of Smart Home developers
(36%) are Hobbyists, primarily interested in building solutions for
themselves. Another third (32%) are Explorers who are learning the
ins and outs of IoT. For Hobbyists in particular, Smart Home is an
attractive choice: over half of all IoT Hobbyists chooses Smart
Home.
Read in the report how platforms can empower more developers to
create viable businesses.

A FULL-BLOWN TRANSFORMATION OF THE SMART HOME MARKET IS UNDERWAY
“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.”
R. Buckminster Fuller
Some say that hundreds of millions of homes will become connected
in the next few years. But today’s Smart Home solutions appeal to
early adopters, not to mainstream buyers. Like a caterpillar, the
Smart Home is about to undergo a full-blown transformation. When
the Smart Home finally does take off, it will look nothing like today’s
market.
For incumbents, these changes represent a tough innovation
challenge. They’ll have to overhaul the way they do things, and in
some cases their entire organisational structure, while protecting their
current business at the same time. This is never an easy endeavour,
and many companies fail to make such transition. Newcomers on the
other hand don’t have to play by existing rules, and are free to
capture the opportunity.
For example, the current revenue models in the Smart Home are
simple: sell devices and installation services, or at best charge a
monthly fee for monitoring services. Surely there is room for
innovation here, and indeed several new types of business models are
emerging.
Amazon is pioneering such a model. Its Amazon Dash buttons turn
devices into a new surface for e-commerce, a potentially very
lucrative way to increase the lifetime value of customers and generate
recurring revenue. Berg has taken this idea a step further, and
embedded the buy button directly in the device. With e-commerce as
the major revenue stream, vendors will have the option to provide the
device itself at cost or even for free, just like Amazon positioned the
Kindle devices in the ebook market. This can spell serious trouble for
competing companies who make profits from selling hardware.
technologies.

CREATING VALUE BY MAKING SENSE OF DATA
The Nest Learning Thermostat has taken the thermostat market by
storm. Not only has it bypassed many of its competitors, but Nest
has launched a new wave of innovation and growth in the market as a
whole. “Smart” programmable thermostats are not new. What makes
the Nest thermostat so different?
Most thermostats use only one data point: temperature. Nest earns
the label “Smart” by pulling in and combining data from many
different sources, from presence detection to working together with
electricity companies that automatically adjust the Nest during peak
times on the electricity grid. In general, the value of IoT products
doesn’t come from the technology or the internet or the things. Value
is created by making sense of data, turning it into knowledge about
the environment and meaningful action.
Data mashups, rather than devices, are the most powerful value
drivers in IoT. Smart Home developers, however, are still focused
on devices. 36% of Smart Home developers is working primarily on
engineering new devices, compared to 24% of other IoT developers.
Only 24% of Smart Home developers are working on data mashups,
relative to 34% of other IoT developers. Moving beyond devices to
data mashups will be an important step to providing more value for
mainstream audiences.

Findout about our report subscriptionoptions
Contact:
Andrea Williamson
andreaw@visionmobile.com
Director, Client Services
Tel: +1 831-471-5730

distilling market noise into market sense

Smart Home Landscape 2015 - Sample Report

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Plus de SlashData

Plus de SlashData (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Smart Home Landscape 2015 - Sample Report