According to a survey by PwC UK, in 2019 10.8 billion pound will be spent to buy smart home devices and 40% of device owners are expecting to upgrade within 2 years. Among those who do not have smart devices yet, 20% affirm they are afraid of privacy problems, that remain one of the most frequent barrier.
In this survey, PwC involved over 2,000 consumers to understand their views and intentions to adopt smart technologies for their homes. Since the first connected home survey in 2016, buying intentions are gradually improving with around 30% of people (2016 – 14%) planning to purchase a smart device for the home in the next two years. Of course the biggest adopters are likely to be 18-25 year-old aspirational homeowners: 59% of this group have already invested in smart entertainment and 40% in wearables.
In the last two year ownership of smart devices has more than doubled, but despite this uplift, the majority of consumers (52%) still have no plans to invest in connected home technology.
It is young people that are not only more likely to adopt smart devices but they also trust tech companies (67%) more than energy (60%) or telecoms (54%) to supply and install them which is very positive moving forward.
