The annual study surveys security dealers across the US to gain insights on their view of the market and their current strategies to grow professional monitored home services. It quantifies shifting demand for smart home devices during the initial sale and as an aftermarket upgrade, and it highlights dealer perspectives on how artificial intelligence (AI) and the Matter standard will impact their businesses.

“The Matter standard was announced a few years ago, and the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has released two specification updates since then,” said Mindi Sue Sternblitz-Rubenstein, Vice President of Marketing, Parks Associates. “Familiarity has been slow to grow, as Matter-enabled smart devices have been slow to come to market, but most standards efforts take time to penetrate an ecosystem. All parties should plan for a lengthy rollout.”

Matter has received widespread support from technology and security giants, including ADT, Amazon, Google, and Apple, along with 600+ other member companies, and device types supporting Matter now include smart lights, HVAC controls, smart shades, security sensors, door locks, smart TVs, smart bridges, smart appliances, smoke and CO detectors, and robotic vacuums, among others.

Matter’s implications are a double-edged sword for security service providers. By lowering the barriers for smart home device interoperability, Matter stands to reduce installation time and costs of creating and upgrading smart homes. Greater interoperability between products benefits all adopters but can also attract new entrants that will compete with established security vendors. It also lowers the barriers to offering a smart security solution, thus encouraging even more competition from DIY players.

“The greatest impact from Matter will be to make installation easier for new and already owned customer devices,” Sternblitz-Rubenstein said. “In the end, this will help expand the market.”