It’s not the cliché that the UK is behind technology-wise.Īs consumer education progresses I think we will see the same growth profile in the UK. This is partly because in Germany about 50% of people build their own houses in the UK that figure is only 10% – the rest is by developers. PS: I would say the German market is ahead when it comes to adoption. IG: Are some countries more enthusiastic about the concept than others? If you can appeal to a 50-year old couple looking to buy a house to retire in that the system will save them half an hour each day in their chores, they might be more receptive to that than a fancy-looking touchscreen on the wall. If I’m building houses for a speculative audience – I don’t know who is going to buy the house – I need to address different demographics. Yet they also realise it’s not about a gadget on the wall. If you put that into relation with UK house prices it’s a 1% cost.Īnd that’s why our solution is very appealing to developers. Go back five years and the processing power simply wasn’t there now we can kit out a 3-4 bedroom house for between £1,700-£2,500. PS: Our prices are actually very competitive and reasonable and they’re dropping. IG: And how much of a deterrent to the average consumer is the price of home automation systems? If you put that into relation with UK house prices it’s a 1% cost You don’t have to keep track of all these instruments, thinking “I forgot to do this or this”. The best we’ve come up with is the house is like an autopilot – it does mundane tasks for you. We’ve tried for many years now to put that into words. It’s not about keeping up with technology it’s about ease of use, simplicity. A lot of our systems are being installed in houses for people who are over 40. PS: Like any solution in the smart home industry, our early adopters were technical people who understood the technology, but we’ve seen a great change and our market is very much going away from techies as such, towards mainstream consumers. IG: Is there any sense yet that non-techies are becoming interested in the concept? It’s about the convenience, the time savings – everyone leads busy lives, we don’t need another app demanding our attention. If you’re controlling your lights from your phone, you’ve made yourself the centralised facilities manager and the console is your smartphone.Ī smart home should take care of things for us. To us it’s a house that does something intelligent. To us, a smart home picks up on your habits, adjusts things around you without you having to pick up your smartphone – it’s exactly the opposite, even, of the Oxford English Dictionary definition. To me that is nothing to do with being smart. I read articles that say a smart home is where I can control devices from my phone. The biggest problem is still understanding what exactly a smart home is. PS: We have the greatest success with people who really look into the topic of home automation. IG: Is there an education gap in terms of marketing the concept to consumers? If you’re controlling your lights from your phone, you’ve made yourself the centralised facilities manager and the console is your smartphone. A smart home should take care of things for us But you can never create a smart home with a single-point solution – it’s just not possible. And companies do like Hive or Nest do those aspects very well. There are so many solutions that address one or two aspects. It is forecast to grow for years and years and years – and yet that mass market adoption as such hasn’t really happened. IG: Is the integrated model one of the keys to home automation gaining mass market adoption? Market growth and barriers to mainstream adoption It’s not just a single-point solution which only controls the heating, lights, audio or security – it’s a holistic approach to the smart home. Our systems really control aspects of the entire home. We work with businesses from an electrical installation, security or AV background. Since then we have gone from strength to strength: we now sell into more than 100 countries, have over 40,000 installations, a network of over 9,000 installers and subsidiaries in 12 countries including the UK and US. Hence the idea of the Miniserver was born. There were standalone solutions but nothing that was fully integrated, affordable and that would change how people live in, and interact with, their houses. There were solutions for heating control and lighting control, security. This was when Apple brought out the first iPhones. Philipp Schuster: In 2009 we saw there was no solution in the market that would appeal to the masses and was up to date with the technology. IFSEC Global: Can you give us a bit of background to Loxone for those who aren’t too familiar with the company? Philipp Schuster, Loxone’s UK MD About Loxone
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