Twenty-five percent of U.S. broadband households with smart home devices experience problems every month

DALLAS, Texas – (Marketwired – August 18, 2014) – Parks Associates’ Internet of Things research shows that approximately 25% of U.S. broadband households equipped with smart home devices experience issues every month. As a result, interest in technical support services among owners of smart home devices is high – 57% of consumers with an IP surveillance camera and 58% of consumers with a smart electronic door lock or thermostat would value technical support services for these solutions.

The research firm will present key findings from its research and analyze the impact of IoT on the smart home and support markets during the free webcast “Internet of Things: Impact on Support Services and Solutions,” co-hosted by Support.com Wednesday, August 20 at 1:00 p.m. CT (2 p.m. ET).

“Smart home packaging is currently seeing strong interest among U.S. consumers, and last week Parks Associates announced that by the end of 2014, nearly 4% of U.S. households will have a smart home controller, with an estimated increase to nearly 6% by 2015 – he said. Patrice Samuels, Research Analyst, Parks Associates, who will co-host the webcast with Amy Millard, Vice President of Marketing at Support.com. “Support providers must be equipped to meet the growing demand for implementation and continuous support services to ensure consumers have optimal experiences with smart home products and services.”

Parks Associates Report The evolution of the smart home and the Internet of Things shows that 64% of all smart devices currently in households work as part of a home security or control system. Smart devices include motorized door controls, lighting controls, a networked security camera, and programmable thermostats.

“The drastic change in technology driven by the cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) is increasing the complexity of products and connections. Technology providers need to continually optimize their service interactions, and we’ve seen that agent process automation is a key step toward this optimization. I am very excited and honored to join Patrice Samuels in speaking on the impact of IoT and the Connected Home on support services,” said Amy Millard, vice president of marketing at Support.com, Inc.

The Parks Associates and Support.com webcast covers the following topics:

• The impact of support services on the adoption and development of smart home solutions.

• Evolution of technical support processes and tools necessary to maintain support effectiveness.

• Opportunities for support providers created by new security and privacy concerns.

Patrice Samuels studies digital home support services in global markets at Parks Associates, with a focus on market trends, business models and vendor strategies. Patrice is on Twitter at @PatriceatParks. Amy Millard leads Corporate Marketing, Product Marketing and Demand Generation at Support.com.

Registration for the webcast is free, and all registrants will receive presentation materials with a link to the recording of the one-hour webinar. Register at http://www.parksassociates.com/support-internetofthings and to request an appointment, contact Holly Sprague at [email protected] or 720-987-6614.

About Parks’ collaborators: Parks Associates is an internationally recognized market research and consulting firm specializing in new consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates creates research capital for Fortune 500 companies to small startups through market reports, fundamental research, consumer research, custom research, workshops, executive conferences and annual service subscriptions.

The company’s specializations include new media, digital entertainment and gaming, home networks, Internet and TV services, digital health, mobile applications and services, consumer electronics, energy management and home control systems and security. http://www.parksassociates.com