Comcast is trying a new strategy to offset cable subscriber losses

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Comcast has been a victim of cable subscriber losses, but the company is working on a new method to make up for that problem.

The cable company has hired former HP executive Sridhar Solur as Senior Vice President of Xfinity Home and IoT products, reports FierceCable. Solur received credit at HP for debuting the company's IoT and wearables businesses.

"Home automation, IoT, and home security are increasingly important product categories for Comcast," said Chris Satchell, executive vice president and chief product officer for Comcast Cable. "Sridhar's extensive experience in the fast-evolving, high-growth business of connected devices will be a strong addition to the Comcast team."

Comcast has been testing the waters in new areas thanks to the slow bleed of cable subscribers that has been happening in the last two years. The company is putting plenty of time and energy into Xfinity Home, its smart home service, in order to make up the lost revenue from fleeing cable subscribers.

Cable companies such as Comcast are trying this strategy of upselling their remaining subscribers into smart home packages. Those same companies are leveraging their significant number of employees to install those packages for customers who choose to purchase them.

There are several challenges for companies taking this approach, however, because the U.S. smart home market has yet to truly take off. Quirky's announcement that it was filing chapter 11 bankruptcy — and selling off its smart home business, Wink — highlights this well.

At its current state, we believe the smart home market is stuck in the 'chasm' of the technology adoption curve, in which it is struggling to surpass the early-adopter phase and move to the mass-market phase of adoption.

There are many barriers preventing mass-market smart home adoption: high device prices, limited consumer demand and long device replacement cycles. However, the largest barrier is the technological fragmentation of the smart home ecosystem, in which consumers need multiple networking devices, apps and more to build and run their smart home.

John Greenough, senior research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the U.S. smart home market that analyzes current consumer demand for the smart home and barriers to widespread adoption. It also analyzes and determines areas of growth and ways to overcome barriers.

BI Intelligence

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• Smart home devices are becoming more prevalent throughout the US. We define a smart home device as any stand-alone object found in the home that is connected to the internet, can be either monitored or controlled from a remote location, and has a noncomputing primary function. Multiple smart home devices within a single home form the basis of a smart home ecosystem.
• Currently, the US smart home market as a whole is in the "chasm" of the tech adoption curve. The chasm is the crucial stage between the early-adopter phase and the mass-market phase, in which manufacturers need to prove a need for their devices.
• High prices, coupled with limited consumer demand and long device replacement cycles, are three of the four top barriers preventing the smart home market from moving from the early-adopter stage to the mass-market stage. For example, mass-market consumers will likely wait until their device is broken to replace it. Then they will compare a nonconnected and connected product to see if the benefits make up for the price differential.
• The largest barrier is technological fragmentation within the connected home ecosystem. Currently, there are many networks, standards, and devices being used to connect the smart home, creating interoperability problems and making it confusing for the consumer to set up and control multiple devices. Until interoperability is solved, consumers will have difficulty choosing smart home devices and systems.
• "Closed ecosystems" are the short-term solution to technological fragmentation. Closed ecosystems are composed of devices that are compatible with each other and which can be controlled through a single point.

In full, the report:

• Analyzes the demand of US consumers, based off of survey results
• Forecasts out smart home device growth until 2020
• Determines the current leaders in the market
• Explains how the connected home ecosystem works
• Examines how Apple and Google will play a major role in the development of the smart home
• Some of the companies mentioned in this report include Apple, Google, Nest, August, ADT, Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Lowe's, and Honeywell.

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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the smart home market.