A connected home is networked to enable the interconnection and interoperability of multiple devices, services, and apps, ranging from communications and entertainment to healthcare, security and home automation.These services and apps are delivered over multiple interlinked and integrated devices, sensors, tools, and platforms. Connected, real-time, smart and contextual experiences are provided for the household inhabitants, and individuals are enabled to control and monitor the home remotely as well as within it.

The technologies behind the connected home can be grouped into the following categories:

• Networking: Familiar home networking technologies (high bandwidth/high power consumption),
• Media and Entertainment: This category, which covers integrated entertainment systems within the household and includes accessing and sharing digital content across different devices.
• Home Security/Monitoring and Home Automation: The technologies in this category cover a variety of services that focus on monitoring and protecting the home as well as the remote and automated control of doors, windows, blinds and locks, heating/air conditioning, lighting and home appliances, and more.
• Energy Management: This category is tightly linked to smart cities and government initiatives, yet consumer services and devices/apps are being introduced at mass-market prices that allow people to track, control and monitor their gas/electricity consumption.
• Fitness and Wellness: The fitness and wellness segment has strong and quickly developed ecosystems that range from devices to sports wears to apps, which integrate seamlessly with each other to create a strong customer experience.

The home of the future will be different in both its technological and social roles. Advanced materials and new information technologies will combine with local influences to define new modes of interaction between house and resident.

By combining trends in renewable energy systems, sustainable architecture, and connected information systems with alternative energy sources, the connected home provides automated services, which help its occupants, lead more sustainable lives. The connected home can manage demand through climate control automation and other efficiency measures. The local weather report helps the house calculate its daily energy plan, adjusting energy sources as conditions change through the day.

The connected home is situated in the larger context of the community, which means that even as it self-manages its own energy generation and distribution, it is also networked and coordinated with the community and city at large. As demand fluctuates, energy from micro-generation can be redistributed as needed. With smart homes and intelligently connected communities and cities, citizens can play a positive and sustainable role in their urban landscape.

A Research from Business Intelligence suggests

• Connected-home device shipments will grow at a compound annual rate of 67% over the next five years and hit 1.8 billion units shipped in 2019, according to BI Intelligence estimates. Connected-home devices include all smart appliances (washers, dryers, refrigerators, etc.), safety and security systems (Internet-connected sensors, monitors, cameras, and alarm systems), and energy equipment like smart thermostats and smart lighting.
• The connected-home category will make up about 25% of shipments within the broader Internet of Things category this year, but that share will increase gradually to roughly 27% in 2019 based on our forecast, as growth in other IoT areas picks up.
• Connected-home device sales will drive over $61 billion in revenue this year. That number will climb at a 52% compound annual growth rate to reach $490 billion in 2019.
• Home-energy equipment and safety and security systems, including devices like connected thermostats and smoke detectors, will become popular first, leading the way to broader consumer adoption.

Connected home devices include home automation devices (such as smart thermostats and WiFi-enabled light bulbs), home monitoring devices (such as a connected security camera that broadcasts to a person’s device), and home security devices (such as a security camera that connects to a central monitoring station).

All of these categories have grown in the last year, but a recent survey of 6,500 consumers in the US and Germany by analysts at Gartner showed that only 16 percent of US online households own a connected home device, while Germany has less than 10 percent of online households with a connected home device.

Moreover, the majority of current spending on connected home devices and services comes from high-income households, and the bulk of that spending has been on devices and services relating to security – such as alarm systems – rather than more advanced connected home devices, such as remote activation of smart products.