Smart home solutions are increasing in popularity in Switzerland, yet only few consumers are actually using these products, according to a recent study by Homegate.ch.

Smart home, one of the biggest trends in the past few years, promises to make our living space more comfortable, more convenient, and more secure. It involves the control and automation of lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and security, as well as home appliances.

A survey conducted the Swiss startup found that 53% of 1,507 respondents are interested in smart home solutions with Switzerland’s Italian-speaking region coming on top with 65%.

16% of Italian-speaking Swiss are already using smart home solutions for security purposes – that’s three times more than the Switzerland’s average usage rate. For other applications such as energy, climate and comfort, usage in Switzerland is very low, ranging between 1 to 5%.

Interest in smart home technologies on the rise

There’s a real interest in smart home solutions in Switzerland with about half of the respondents stating they would use connected devices and appliances in the future for use cases in the areas of energy, climate and healthcare. In Switzerland’s Italian-speaking region, interest is even higher: up to 70% are considering connected solutions for healthcare.

“In all parts of the country, the affinity for technology, the pleasure of technological gadgets as well as progressivism, are the key reasons cited for using smart home solutions,” Homegate.ch said in a press release. “This suggests that such devices and appliances are still primarily used by tech-savvy people, and that general endorsement is still very low and hasn’t reach the mainstream audience yet.”

Among the key challenges to adoption, the report cited concerns about cybersecurity, data privacy and high costs as the top issues. Furthermore, smart home solutions are lacking maturity and the fragmentation in the industry make it difficult for providers to offer a full smart home ecosystem, highlighting the need for further progress from the suppliers’ side.

All respondents said the key interest in using smart home solutions was for the potential cost savings as well as to increase home security.

One third of respondents said they would be willing to pay more for smart home solutions for home security, as well as to control and automate lighting and air conditioning.

In 2016, 80 million smart home devices were delivered worldwide, a 64% increase from 2015, according to IHS Markit.

MarketsandMarkets estimates that the smart home market will grow from US$46.97 billion in 2015 to US$121.73 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 14.07% between 2016 and 2022.

The large players in the market include Comcast, AT&T, as well as security providers like Vivint. Notable startups include Nest, a company that develops smart home products that was acquired by Google in 2016 for US$3.2 billion, Gideon, a connected home app, and Roost.

Swiss players in the smart home and intelligent living sector include Neeo, a hardware startup that has developed a remote with hand recognition for smart homes that allows to control the TV, lighting, heating and more, eSMART, a smart home management system, Smart Home Technology, which specializes in custom hardware and software development for businesses, and Adhoco, a company that has developed an integrated home automation system that optimizes comfort, saves energy and increases security.

Featured image by ariadna de raadt, via Shutterstock.com.