Consumer and DIY Home Monitoring Cameras : the Market to Watch
Starting from the news that Panasonic this week announced, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcellona, the launch of Nubo, which it claims is the world’s first 4G home monitoring camera, Josh Woodhouse, senior analyst for IHS Inc., provides information on the consumer and DIY video surveillance and home monitoring market, in the shown below research note.
Consumer awareness of video surveillance and home video monitoring is increasing. This has been helped by the exposure Dropcam has provided the category. Retailers are taking note and network cameras are increasingly present on the shelves and webpages of many stores. IHS forecasts over 11 million consumer and DIY network cameras will be shipped worldwide in 2015.
With the proliferation of standalone network cameras, the category has evolved beyond just security.
Cameras in the home are very much lifestyle products that invoke consumers to regularly check-in at any detected change in environment, whether this is checking if the kids are home from school, or if their pets are okay. The regular events detected by cameras’ sensors or connections with other non-video devices means higher user engagement with the camera. This can justify potentially lucrative cloud storage add-on fees, which made Dropcam such an attractive buy for Google’s Nest Labs. The active monitoring approach is a stark contrast to the closed circuit (CCTV) analog camera and DVR systems available in many DIY stores. These systems are traditionally installed and left running until there is an event noticed by the user which requires a video review. Nevertheless, there will remain a large market for this type of equipment for more of a passive security conscious consumer.
The addition of 4G connectivity of consumer network cameras was a natural progression for the category. What 4G and battery power enables is the further evolution into truly portable home monitoring. Start-up Link-U along with Panasonic’s Nubo are vying to be the first to offer portable home monitoring when shipments start later this year. Nubo’s IP66 rating will allow for use outdoors, an advantage over Link-U and current Dropcam models. Concepts such as the FLIR FX, which combines a portable home monitoring camera with both a dashboard and action camera, could be a glimpse into another potentially interesting direction for the category.
by the Editorial Staff
