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Retail Wireless Smart Lighting to Increase 150% Over Last Year |
Consumer adoption of wireless smart lighting is accelerating with dozens of new products, a mass market transformation to LED bulbs and smart device users looking for new applications. Sales in the retail channel will increase by 150% this year with much of this growth attributed to RF enabled LED light bulbs. San Diego, CA Nov. 14, 2013-- Rapid consumer adoption of wireless smart lighting systems is the start of a multi-year exponential growth story, according to global technology research firm ON World. While many of the latest wireless lighting products are focused on commercial building energy management, the residential market is growing even faster. In fact, retail sales of several wireless lighting control products increased by more than 200% over the past 12 months and hundreds of wireless lighting control products are currently for sale through retail and online channels. In addition, millions of IP based security and home automation packages have been sold worldwide, many of which now include wireless lighting controls and virtually all come bundled with smart device apps. Adoption of residential wireless lighting controls in the retail/DIY channel has been especially robust over the past year. ON World’s evaluation of over 8,000 product reviews found that the fastest growing products have been RF enabled light bulbs, switch plugs and occupancy sensors by Belkin, Philips and Smart Labs. There are headwinds, however, as two-way/connected products do not have the economies of scale of the older one-way wireless controls and these are several times more expensive today. But the latest Smart Home platforms and Internet connected light bulbs are changing this by providing smart lighting solutions at minimal extra cost. ON World’s most recent survey of nearly 300 early technology adopting consumers found that more than two thirds are willing to pay for a smart lighting service and 29% are willing to pay at least $20 per light bulb. Six in ten would like to have over half of their home’s light bulbs networked with a smart lighting system. In 2012, ZigBee had the largest market share for the overall wireless smart lighting market but its lowest penetration rate was in residential mass market channels. However, the success of ZigBee LED light bulbs over the past year is quickly bringing ZigBee into the lead for consumer smart lighting. In July 2013, the Connected Lighting Alliance selected ZigBee Light Link as the standard for residential wireless lighting controls. Energy harvesting is a major driver for wireless smart lighting. About one in four of the commercial building wireless lighting devices shipped in 2012 were self-powered without batteries. Although EnOcean has a significant market lead for wireless energy harvesting, ZigBee Green Power gives dozens of 802.15.4 chipset suppliers the ability to create low-cost energy harvesting devices that can participate in wireless mesh ZigBee networks. Shipments of wireless chipsets for lighting controls will surpass 40 million in 2017 up from 5.5 million in 2012. At this time, 87% of the market will be for residential and commercial buildings. ON World’s report, “Smart Wireless Lighting” is based on phone interviews and online surveys with over 500 individuals including consumers, facility/property managers, professional installers, equipment manufacturers, software developers and component suppliers. It covers the global market for connected wireless lighting controls in three market landscapes (commercial, residential and municipal) and 14 market segments, presents the results from several surveys and analyzes over 60 companies with smart wireless solutions. Forecasts are for equipment and services as well as by product category, geography and technology. The wireless lighting technologies included are ZigBee, 802.15.4, 6LoWPAN, WiFi, Bluetooth Smart, EnOcean, Z-Wave, proprietary and others. The report synopsis and a free executive summary is available from: http://onworld.com/smartlighting About ON World: Media contact: Back to News
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