There is an explosion of creative ideas happening right now around the smart home. Mobile devices have transformed the way we think about interacting with the technology in our homes and it’s created an appetite for real-time connection and control that was once impossible. There are now wireless sensors that can be put in the soil of indoor plants that will send an alert when they need to be watered and there are also new medical devices that can help adults care for and monitor their aging parents when they can’t be near.
What’s driving all this interest in the smart home is a confluence of technology, affordability and consumer demand. When we first went to market with our Xfinity Home service in 2010, we offered wireless sensors on windows and doors and digital thermostats you could adjust remotely from a computer or with an app on a smartphone. Soon after, we added streaming video cameras you could put in your living room. That was followed by waterproof infrared cameras you could put outside, floor sensors for the basement and laundry room to detect any flooding in your home from your smartphone while you are at the office or on vacation.
When we first launched the service, we offered about eight features. Today, we are leveraging the cloud more than ever, we offer twice as many features and my team and I are currently testing and evaluating about a dozen more devices that we could theoretically offer to our customers. Ten years ago, there wasn’t a significant market for smart home technology because it would have cost consumers thousands of dollars, but today it’s a fraction of that which makes it accessible for consumers and provides us with an incredible opportunity in this market.
The consumer demand coupled with the need to stay connected remotely through mobile devices and the interest in smart home technologies continues to grow. We’ve seen this adoption of mobile devices with our own customers who access their Xfinity Home systems through smartphones or tablets far more often than through their computers. We’ve also discovered that more than half of our Xfinity Home customers have never previously had a home security system and approximately one-fifth of our current customers are new to Comcast. Those are encouraging data points and it’s an exciting time to be working on smart home technologies. It’s exciting because the possibilities in this space are truly endless and the evolution of the smart home is here. I’m fortunate to collaborate with a team of extremely hardworking, creative and intelligent people. Individuals who work towards the common goal of developing and aggressively deploying innovative solutions that keep our customers connected to the things that matter the most.