Commentary

Connected Consumers: 55% Own Fitbit, 28% Nest Thermostat, 23% Apple Watch

While many consumers haven’t yet bought into the idea of smart home devices or wearable technology like smartwatches or fitness trackers, those who have are selecting a very wide range of devices.

While Fitbits lead for what consumers wear and Google’s popular Nest thermostats top the list of smart home objects, that doesn’t provide the scope of how widespread the range of products is.

A new piece of research goes deep into the range of both wearables and smart home devices and provides a view of how wide the market is, as consumers select their own products for what could be any number of personal reasons.

The study comprised a survey of 500 U.S. adults from a panel representative of U.S. Census data and was conducted by Rocket Fuel.

For home connected devices, devices from Google’s Nest comprise three of the top five products, though no one product seems to dominate the market. Here’s the list of connected home devices consumers currently own:

  • 28% -- Nest learning thermostat
  • 25%-- Netatmo Weather Station
  • 25% -- Nest Cam
  • 22% -- Philips Hue connected bulb
  • 21% -- Nest Protect
  • 21% -- Other home security device
  • 18% -- Belkin WeMo Switch+ Motion
  • 14% -- August Smart Lock
  • 14% -- Other connected home appliance
  • 11% -- Canary (home security)
  • 8% -- GE/Quirky Aros smart window air conditioner

For wearable devices, the number of different devices is just as broad, ranging from those from Fitbit to Garmin. Here’s the current breakdown by wearable device currently owned:

  • 55% -- Fitbit
  • 23% -- Apple Watch
  • 17% -- Samsung Gear Fit
  • 16% -- Nike+ Fuelband
  • 10% -- Omron blood pressure monitor
  • 9% -- Microsoft Band
  • 8% -- Jawbone Up
  • 8% -- Other fitness health tracker
  • 6% -- Basis Peak
  • 6% -- Garmin Vivofit Fitness Band
  • 5% -- Pebble Smartwatch
  • 4% -- Other smartwatch

The challenge for advertisers is that many of the connected devices, whether worn or found in the home, have either a small or no screen.

But the advantage is that the devices can be a data source that informs smarter cross-device profiles to determine potential purchase influence points.

And many consumers are fine with sharing data gleaned from their connected devices. Here’s a breakdown of devices that consumers are comfortable or very comfortable in sharing their data and which sources of the data they would be willing to share:

  • 31% -- Console gaming data
  • 30% -- Media consumption data
  • 29% -- Health/fitness data
  • 29% -- Retail data
  • 29% -- Handheld gaming data
  • 28% -- Home management data
  • 28% -- Sports training data
  • 26% -- Smartwatch data
  • 25% -- Driving data
  • 23% -- Personal finance data
  • 22% -- Home security data
  • 20% -- Wireless audio data

While advertising may not come directly through the connected devices, the data from those smart objects can help determine the best messaging to be transmitted through many other avenues.

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