Smart home technology is booming right now

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in people spending more time in their homes. And while this has led to investments in home offices and banana bread bonuses, it has also given people a reason to try out new smart home technologies.

According to data shared today by research firm IDC, the smart home market has experienced “persistent supply chain disruptions, unemployment and uneven economic recovery,”leading to a 10.3 percent growth in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the third quarter of 2020.

“The smart home market continues to fare better than other consumer products during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, albeit to varying degrees across regions,” senior research analyst Adam Wright said in a statement. “By and large, consumers have shifted their spending priorities away from other areas, such as vacations and dining out, to focus on adding more comfort, convenience, and entertainment at home.”

Entertainment devices were the big winners. Smart TVs and turntables sold the most, accounting for 35.3% of total smart home shipments for the quarter, according to the research firm. This category was followed by smart home security products (20.4%). However, privacy concerns remain a barrier to market growth.

Globally, demand has surged due to greater broadband access, “rising disposable incomes”and greater awareness of smart home products.

The U.S. had the most smart home shipments, with a 9.5% quarter-on-quarter growth, according to IDC.

Jitesh Ubrani, IDC’s manager of mobile device tracker research, noted that the average selling price of smart devices has risen “more than 3 percent.”He attributed this growth to a new set of features and supply chain disruptions. The average price of a smart TV, for example, has risen nearly 7 percent as OLED becomes more popular, Ubrani said.

IDC’s smart home report comes out the same week, with the company forecasting PC shipments to fall 3.4% during the holiday quarter and tablets to drop 8.6%. In the third quarter of 2021, another category of connected personal devices, wearables, grew by 9.9%, according to IDC.