Study after study shows that machine-to-machine (M2M) devices are becoming more popular all the time. One report indicates that consumer M2M devices are going to be approaching 14 million shipped by the end of 2017. Noting that, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that the smart thermostat market is expected to grow to 10 times what it is at right now, but the end of 2020.
The global smart thermostat market is currently sitting around $100 million. Industry analysts are seeing big enough growth over the next seven years that it could hit $1.4 billion by 2020. Navigant Research is the lead cheerleader of this particular estimate.
“Unlike products and solutions that are directly integrated by government-sponsored utility smart grid programs, smart thermostats have remained largely in the commercial sphere where uptake relies on individual energy efficiency awareness and cost savings as purchasing incentives. As such, the market for smart thermostats has struggled to gain traction,” Navigant wrote in its recent report.
While no one is arguing that the smart thermostat is still a niche market today, there are indicators that it could become more mainstream inside this decade. One top company, Nest Labs, reports that it is shipping about 40,000 smart thermostats per month. Alarm.com (News - Alert) says that it has hundreds of thousands of customers that are using the devices in conjunction with its connected home offerings.
When it comes to the most popular M2M technology these days, GPS and route optimization services are the kings of the hill these days. That isn’t stopping companies from looking for other ways to take advantage of M2M technology in order to become the next big thing. One way smart thermostats could really break through would be if they could become more accepted by utility companies.
So far, it doesn’t appear that utility companies are all that interested in managing these kinds of devices in their customers’ homes. Those same companies are plenty happy to leverage the products once a third party has installed them. If these outside contractors and the smart thermostat devices can continue to catch on, the $1.4 billion estimate could be a conservative one.
Edited by Rachel Ramsey