Early adopters are the core smart home consumers

It's been known for a while that home security is one of the biggest reasons behind the home automation trend. This is still true. Home monitoring has an 11 percent adoption rate among “connected” home solutions, Gartner has found from a survey of 10,000 respondents. It's tied with health and wellness management, with energy management slightly behind at 9 percent.

These newer smart home offerings trail behind security alarms, though, which have an 18 percent adoption rate. Security alarms are, in a way, the original "connected home solution" and they remain popular. Moreover, they are easier to monetize because they often charge a monthly service fee.

Some newer smart home companies such as those offering smart security camera services are trying to monetize through online services, but it's proving difficult. Most “connected” households do not have any kind of subscription service for home monitoring or automation, according to the survey.

These trends show smart home brands are having trouble reaching consumers beyond early adopters. Three-quarters of respondents also said they didn't have a problem manually turning on lights and adjusting the thermostat in the home. More consumers are starting to recognize the benefits of having everything connected to one ecosystem, though. This shows the importance of having devices work with major smart home systems like Apple's HomeKit.

“Connected” devices still have tremendous value, but many consumers might not know it yet. There is evidence that smart homes that adjust automatically temperature, lighting and other things can save consumers money in the long run.

The Internet of Things is also growing quickly outside the home. Research and Markets projects industrial IoT will grow at a CAGR of 7.89 percent between 2016 and 2022. Market value will reach $195.47 billion by the end of the forecast period, up from $113.71 billion in 2015.