Analyst firm Juniper Research released Tuesday data that found smart home hardware and service take-up in entertainment, automation, healthcare and connected devices is set to drive revenues from US$83 billion in 2017 to $195 billion by 2021.
The research found that market leaders Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Samsung will further solidify their position by building on current assets such their cloud services and incumbent device bases. Juniper has ranked these companies on product development, breadth of partnerships in the industry, success of their adopted business model, and level of innovation. In the top position was Amazon; followed by South Korean company Samsung Electronics, while Google parent company Alphabet took the third position; and the iPhone maker Apple completing the top four positions.
The research covered eight key regions including North America, Latin America, West Europe, Central & East Europe, Far East & China, Indian Subcontinent, Rest of Asia Pacific and Africa & Middle East. The countries enclosed include Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, UK, and the USA.
The introduction of IoT technologies is filling a demand for smart automation, monitoring and energy management services in the consumer home. The research provides critical analysis of the key business models, regional opportunities and developments, whilst providing insights into disruption from start-ups.
The research highlighted that home automation and smart appliances will witness the fastest growth over the next five years, driven by manufacturers such as Samsung, Bosch and GE Appliances adding connectivity to their units.
Juniper believes Amazon’s innovation, use of cloud services in Amazon Alexa, and ability to capitalize on its eCommerce presence gives them a leading position.
Alexa is the voice service that powers Echo, provides capabilities, or skills, that enable customers to interact with devices in a more intuitive way using voice. Examples of these skills include the ability to play music, answer general questions, set an alarm or timer and more. Alexa is built in the cloud, so it is always getting smarter. The more customers use Alexa, the more it adapts to speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.
With Alexa, developers can build new voice experiences and take advantage of natural user interfaces, like those based on speech, represent the next major disruption in computing, and understanding human speech and focusing on differentiated value-add to customers.
The Alexa Skills Kit is a collection of self-service APIs, tools, documentation and code samples that make it fast and easy to add skills to Alexa. All of the code runs in the cloud — nothing is installed on any user device. With the Alexa Skills Kit, developers can create compelling, hands-free voice experiences by adding their own skills to Alexa. Customers can access these new skills on any Alexa-enabled device simply by asking Alexa a question or making a command.
Research author Sam Barker commented: “The company has managed to maximise its value proposition for Alexa by partnering with a large range of complementary players in the market, whilst utilising its own cloud platform to set Echo and Alexa apart from its competitors in terms of functionality.”
