India's smart home devices mkt jumps 107 pc to 1.4 mn units in Q2 2018: IDC

Evolving technology consumption habits and increasing affordability of data plans have helped the 'smart home' devices market in India to grow 107 per cent year-on-year to 1.4 million units in April-June 2018, as per research firm IDC.

The smart home devices market includes gadgets like connected lights, smart speakers, connected thermostats, smart TVs, and home monitoring/security products, among others.

"The smart home devices market continues to show an impressive growth on the back of evolving technology consumption habits amongst the consumers and variety of affordable data connectivity options available in India," IDC said in a report.

It added that video entertainment -- which includes smart TVs, streaming sticks and set-top boxes -- dominated the market and grew 81 per cent year-over-year.

Xiaomi led the smart TV segment, while Amazon was the leader in the streaming stick category with its Fire TV stick.

"The Indian video entertainment market is seeing an upgrade to connected media devices and larger screen viewing experience.

"To drive the growth, companies are upgrading their product portfolios with smart SKUs, relooking at the pricing, and adding new channels to sell their devices," IDC India Associate Research Manager Client Devices Jaipal Singh said.

He added that OTT content players like Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar, Sony Liv and a host of other streaming services are spending aggressively on marketing and local content availability to hook new customers in an attempt to lure them away from incumbent DTH and cable TV services.

IDC said smart speakers category is also seeing healthy traction, with 43 per cent sequential growth in the April-June 2018 quarter. Amazon with its Echo range of smart speakers led the category, followed by Google.

IDC India Associate Research Director Navkendar Singh said as this category continues to gain traction, users are getting acquainted with the voice assistants and opting for it as a single platform to control all their smart home devices needs.