More than 12 million US households now use internet connected smart door locks
Victoria Rees
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A new whitepaper reveals the increasing use of smart door locks connected to the internet in apartments across the United States and numbers are set to rise due to resident demands say building managers.
An estimated 12 million have smart door locks with associated whole-building access control systems, according to the report Simplifying the IoT Edge: Smart Spaces Best Practices, released by Parks Associates. The whitepaper addresses the demand, growth, and new business opportunities in internet-of-thins (IoT) edge solutions in apartments and multi-dwelling units (MDUs), retail and warehousing, and hospitality and building management.
The research, developed in partnership with PassiveBolt, highlights the rise in demand for secured smart spaces, the growing ecosystem of competitors, and the need for manufacturers to develop partnerships with suppliers who can help them adapt quickly to new opportunities.
An estimated 15% of MDU owners/operators report having a secure access system in common areas that include IoT devices they can access and control remotely. A similar percentage have connected access solutions for individual units. One-third of MDU property managers report that their residents are demanding the ability to enable remote access to apartment units.
“The majority of residential door locks installed in the US are mechanical, but an increasing number of exterior locks are being replaced with smart door locks,” said Jennifer Kent, Vice President, Research, Parks Associates. “As connectivity becomes a de facto requirement to stay competitive, value creation moves to new sets of features and applications. Manufacturers must engage in constant innovation and explore new strategies to take products to market quickly.”
Whether established market leaders or start-ups, smart access control product and system manufacturers are under constant pressure to keep innovating. Product lifecycles for smart products – which demand software updates, new connectivity standards, sensor integration, and cybersecurity patches – are dramatically shorter than traditional, unconnected or locally networked solutions. Manufacturers must be more agile, respond faster to changing market conditions, and get new features to consumers faster than the organization may be able to move.
“Feature innovations, such as biometric verification, integrated video cameras, voice control via smart speakers, and integration with home delivery services, just keep coming,” said Kent. “Manufacturers try to keep up, but the fragmented nature of the space and the lack of a mature supply chain may be depressing this market’s ability to scale.”
Kabir Maiga, Co-Founder of PassiveBolt, suggests a Tier-1 market structure, a model long utilized in the automotive and other mature industries, can fuel industry growth. “A Tier-1 supply structure can result in more effective R&D, rapid pivots to adapt to changing market conditions, and easier integrations across the smart home and IoT spaces.”
Smart access companies are constantly looking for incremental innovation, progress, and technology development that make products better year over year. Suppliers have an opportunity to better serve manufacturers by operating on a Tier-1 structure, which could provide a more systematic and cost efficient approach for the development and release of the next generation of products.
Vice President Jennifer Kent manages the research department and Parks Associates’ process for producing high-quality, relevant, and meaningful research. She also leads and advises on syndicated and custom research projects across all connected consumer verticals and guides questionnaire development for Parks Associates’ extensive consumer analytics survey program. Jennifer is a certified focus group moderator, with training from the Burke Institute.
Access the full white paper report HERE
About Parks Associates
Parks Associates, a “woman-owned and woman-led internationally recognized market research and consulting company, specializes in emerging technology solutions serving the consumer and small to medium business (SMB) markets”. Celebrating its 35th year in 2021, Parks Associates is a partner to companies navigating the changing consumer technology landscapes through data-driven market insights, extensive consumer and industry intelligence, custom marketing services, and executive networking experiences and conferences. http://www.parksassociates.com
