Parks Associates: Smart Home Products and Systems Will Generate 11 Million Support Requests in 2019

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwired - Nov 12, 2015) - Parks Associates, a leading market research firm, today released a research whitepaper entitled "Next Generation Support: Driving IoT Adoption," sponsored by Support.com, that addresses IoT adoption trends and the evolving need for a new kind of technical support to improve customer experiences and drive product adoption.

U.S. broadband households now own an average of seven and a half connected computing and entertainment devices, and 18 percent own at least one smart home device. Smart home products and systems will generate over seven million support requests in the U.S. in 2015 and approximately 11 million in 2019, according to Parks Associates. The whitepaper analyzes the challenges emerging from this growth in the IoT and discusses new support strategies, including those that leverage device-generated data and analytics to automate and improve support processes.

"Enabling even simple IoT usage involves high levels of complexity that can generate technical problems," said Patrice Samuels, Research Analyst, Parks Associates. "Fortunately, some of the very features of connected devices that are driving complexity throughout the home are also giving brands the opportunity to serve customers better. Advances in access to consumer devices dramatically improve support efficiency, and the large volumes of data generated by connected devices provide insight for effective diagnosis and guidance for support and product improvements."

Next Generation Support: Driving IoT Adoption examines the lack of consumer familiarity with new connected devices, the inconvenience and complexity of setting up devices, and greater needs for professional setup and installation services for smart home devices, when compared to "traditional" connected consumer electronics (CE).

Parks Associates' research found that 85 percent of consumers do not use professional services when setting up devices such as connected TVs and PCs. For smart home devices, only 60 percent of consumers set up new devices on their own, and 40 percent rely on professional support.

"Of the consumers who set up these traditional devices themselves, only eight percent found the process to be inconvenient. By comparison, 28 percent of the consumers who set up smart home devices themselves felt the process was inconvenient," Samuels said. "These potential challenges to IoT in-home device adoption mean that brands must now manage their customers' experiences throughout their entire journey with their products."

"The interconnectedness of IoT devices presents limitless combinations of interactions and, therefore, user-driven questions and issues," said Chris Koverman, Vice President of Engineering and Operations for Support.com. "So support for the IoT is not only about supporting devices; more importantly it's also about supporting systems of devices, their connections, and the cloud apps that orchestrate their interactions."

Samuels will discuss this research and new business models for tech support in the IoT during the tenth-annual CONNECTIONS™ Summit: IoT, Entertainment, and the Connected Consumer, January 6-7, 2016, at CES® 2016 in Las Vegas. She will moderate the session "Support Solutions: IoT and the Connected Home" on Thursday, January 7, at 11:00 A.M.

To download a complimentary copy of Next Generation Support: Driving IoT Adoption, go to http://www.parksassociates.com/iot-nextgen. For more information on Parks Associates' research, or CONNECTIONS™ Summit, visit www.parksassociates.com. To schedule an interview with Patrice Samuels, or to request specific research data, please contact Holly Sprague at hsprague@gmail.com or at +1.720.987.6614.

For more information on SaaS solutions for IoT and Connected Home by Support.com®, please visit http://www.support.com/IoT.

About Parks Associates

Parks Associates is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates creates research capital for companies ranging from Fortune 500 to small start-ups through market reports, primary studies, consumer research, custom research, workshops, executive conferences, and annual service subscriptions.

The company's expertise includes digital media and platforms, entertainment and gaming, home networks, Internet and television services, digital health, mobile applications and services, support services, consumer apps, advanced advertising, consumer electronics, energy management, and home control systems and security.

Each year, Parks Associates hosts industry webcasts, the CONNECTIONS™ Conference Series, Connected Health Summit: Engaging Consumers, and Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer. http://www.parksassociates.com

About Support.com

Support.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPRT) is the leading provider of cloud-based software (Nexus^®) and services to deliver next-generation technical support. Support.com helps leading brands in software, electronics, communications, retail, Internet of Things (IoT) and other connected technology industries deepen their customer relationships. Customers want technology that works the way it's intended. By using Support.com software and services, companies can deliver a fantastic customer experience, leading to happier customers, a stronger brand and growing revenues. Support.com, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer.