An Interview with: Mariana Zamoszcyzk, Principal Analyst, Smart Home Services, Omdia.
Tell us about your role and focus within Omdia?
I work as part of Omdia's Service Providers team, covering the smart home industry. I focus on vendor and services provider smart home strategies, business models and AI assistants.
What are this year’s major trends across the connected smart home market?
Smart homes continue to gain momentum as the adoption of smart home devices and services accelerates among consumers. Key smart home vendors such as Amazon and Google are increasingly focusing on the development of new subscription services designed to tie their respective smart home products to new monthly revenue streams.
Meanwhile, the growing sophistication of cybersecurity threats at home is pushing service providers to work more on the integration between home security and network security to improve the smart home experience, creating a more differentiated digital portfolio for the home as a result.
Going forward, how do you see these trends evolving and changing in the markets?
At Omdia, we believe that the launch of new value-added smart home subscription services will strengthen the importance of the smart home but will also promote new levels of customer captivity. This means full access to advanced smart home functionality will be limited to subscribers. This means that the smartest homes will be restricted to those willing to pay for subscription services.
Where are the biggest opportunities for CSPs to expand their service offering across the smart home?
The need to be successful in the development of new consumer revenue streams has intensified among CSPs, leading them to increase their focus on the smart home market. This explains why almost 60% of operators think smart home offers more revenue opportunities than other popular digital consumer services, such as online video and gaming.
To take advantage of the growing smart home momentum, it is important for CSPs to bear in mind the smart home covers a broad spectrum of services. They need to develop an all-inclusive approach, ranging from the connected home, with services such as Wi-Fi optimization, cybersecurity, and premium technical support, to the smart home, with multiple use cases such as physical security, elderly care, and home insurance. Also, it is important to promote bundles that follow a unified service approach capable of integrating the digital and physical elements of a smart home.
At Omdia, we believe it is vital to serve different smart home use cases directly or via partnerships.
You are moderating a Panel and Roundtable at Network X around strategic decisions on which Value-Added-Services for CSPs to offer, are you able to give us some insight in to what the audience can expect from these sessions?
I will share with the audience strategic insight on how the smart home market is evolving, focusing on the adoption of different smart home products and services. I will highlight which smart home solutions are the most popular among consumers and where the future spending is heading to. I will also help CSPs to identify which obstacles must be overcome for the development of a successful smart home strategy.