By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
Plume IQ – the smart home data analysis service provided by Plume – has released its first half-yearly 1H2021- 1H2022 smart home market update revealing that the average number of Wi-Fi connected devices now stands at a whopping 17 per household, up 10% from last year. Data consumption has grown with about the same amount. There are plenty of other valuable insights in this highly recommended report – download it here.
The latest market report from Plume IQ confirms that Wi-Fi-connected smart home continues to stand out as one of the most important growth segments in tech: Between 1H2021 and 1H2022 the number of Wi-Fi connected home devices in the markets analysed by Plume IQ grew by 10% to a remarkable 17 units per household while data consumption grew by the about the same amount (11%). US data consumption was nearly three times that of Europe and Japan, the report reveals.
To arrive at such figures Plume IQ says it has extracted connectivity data from 200,000 homes selected from more than 41 million homes currently managed by the Plume Cloud in the US, Europe, and Japan. As a consequence the figures should be viewed as indicative of usage and trends for what is arguably a sophisticated high-end slice of the global smart home broadband market and not as representing a global average for connected households as such. Plume IQ points out that data from the same 200,000 homes were used for the 1H2021 and 1H2022 analyses in order to determine the changes accurately.
Perhaps the most remarkable finding is the extent to which the US is ahead of Europe and Japan in terms of data consumption. The US leads with an average data consumption of 657 GB per month while the European average is a 227 GB per month. US consumption also grew faster during the period at a growth rate of 14.4%, the report says. European device growth was slightly higher than the US at 12.8%.
Meanwhile Japanese average broadband speeds grew the most compared to other regions during the period: 28% in the download direction and 45% in the upload direction (for the less than 500 Mbps service segment). A lot more details on average broadband speeds are available in the report.
The fastest growing IoT devices during the period were cameras (+55%), smart doorbells (+43%), home hubs (+38%), and smart light bulbs (+25%). Apple continues to command the most brand loyalty by a wide margin, the report says.
“Plume’s data reflects two interesting periods – the first half of 2021 when consumers were gradually emerging from the pandemic restrictions that had kept them homebound, and the first half of 2022 when people started going back into the world. Despite the radically different circumstances, it’s evident that smart homes and IoT devices remain very much key to our connected lifestyles,” says Todd Grantham, Chief Marketing Officer at Plume.
For more don’t miss Plume speaking at the Wi-Fi World Congress Europe 2022 happening in Stockholm this September 26-28. Click here for more details.
/Claus.
