Admit it, when you were a kid watching The Jetsons you thought you’d had a robot maid by now, didn’t you? Well, you may not have a robot maid who can go about straightening up the house while you are at work without being told, but you can have a robotic vacuum that you can start remotely and that’s almost the same thing.
The tech that we have available to us today is the tech that solves the problems we need solved right now. How many times have you stopped by the grocery store after work only to realize that you have no idea what you actually need to buy? Enter the smart refrigerator that tells you what you are out of, or your Alexa app that keeps track of the things you tell it to put on your list.
You can totally live without these things, but do you really want to? Tech is supposed to make your life easier, and it can be really frustrating when you hear about a data breach associated with IoT crock pots. Why have it if it’s going to shut down the Internet?
The good news is that most people who use smart home products are very happy with them. Baby Boomers are the most likely group to purchase IoT safety and security devices like home security systems and emergency water shutoff monitoring systems - twice as likely as Millennials, in fact.
The smart home market is growing, but things like cost and security concerns are holding many homeowners back. Ten percent of homeowners with smart home tech have experienced a data breach because of it, and 87% of those people had to spend sometimes as much as $5000 to resolve the issue. IoT apps are harder to secure than mobile apps according to IT professionals, likely because no one is thinking about updating the software on their toaster.
The most desired characteristics in smart home tech are encryption and data protection, customer support, a user friendly interface, and the ability to customize - bust most importantly it has to be affordable. Smart mattresses are great for tracking your sleep, but would you really spend that much more than you would for a regular mattress? A robot maid would be great to help the increasingly large share of elderly in this country.
Men, Millennials, and the wealthy are the groups that say they are most excited about adopting new IoT home tech. Learn more about homes of the future from this infographic!
