Berg Insight said Europe's smart home market lagged North America by two to three years in terms of penetration and market maturity at the end of 2015, with an installed base of 5.3 million smart homes compared to 12.7 million in North America.
The research company predicted that the number of smart home connections in Europe will grow at a CAGR of 54 per cent between 2015 and 2020 to reach 44.9 million homes -- equivalent to 20 per cent of all European households. In North America, the installed base of smart homes will reach 46.2 million by 2020, which corresponds to 35 per cent of all households.
Berg Insight named Deutsche Telekom, Verisure, eQ-3, and Loxone as major vendors of comprehensive whole-home smart home systems in Europe today.
The most successful smart home products in both markets include thermostats, security systems, light bulbs, network cameras, and multi-room audio systems. Companies including Philips Lighting, Honeywell, Belkin, Nest, Ecobee, MyFox, Sonos, Canary, Netatmo, and D-Link are the key vendors of such products, the research company announced.
Despite the predicted rise in the installed base of smart homes, Berg Insight noted that the market is still in its infancy in terms of ecosystem development and the ease of use of products.
"Attractive use cases, interoperable devices and well implemented user interfaces are needed in order to accelerate the market," Johan Svanberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight, said.
Companies including Amazon and Apple are already utilising voice control in a bid to make smart home equipment easier to use. Berg Insight tipped Microsoft and Google to follow suit.
In separate, related, research, Berg Insight announced that the installed base of smart thermostats in Europe grew by close to 90 per cent year-on-year in 2015 to 1.4 million. The company predicted the number will reach 18.9 million by 2020, and explained that smart thermostats are a "particularly attractive opportunity" within the broader smart home market.
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