The majority of U.S. households (85%) feel that their current internet service meets their needs, even though the connection is being called upon to do more, according to new research from Hub Entertainment Research.Â
Over half of homes (55%) now have smart home devices, compared with 51% in 2023, the researchers found.
That finding is in keeping with similar research from Parks Associates that found that the percentage of homes that own one to three smart devices was rising.
Internet Service Must Meet Growing Needs
According to the new Hub Entertainment research, nearly 80% of households now have smart TVs, up from 70% in 2021. And 62% of households stream weekly on a smart TV (up from 47% in 2021).
Smart doorbell adoption rates have grown from 26% of households in 2023 to 31% today.
Not surprisingly, considering the growth in connected devices and connected device usage, the percentage of consumers that consider their households to be “heavy” internet users rose from 35% to 39% since 2022, the researchers found.
There were a few types of smart home devices that didn’t see strong growth, however.
Streaming media player ownership is at 56%, but growth is slowing as smart TVs offer an all-in-one solution. And the smart speaker category has shown “no significant growth” since 2022. Hub theorized that smart speakers are only being used for music, suggesting that “the vision of integrated smart home devices linked by a smart speaker may be a ways off.”
