6.7.18 – CEPro –
Front-door security swelled over the past year, as the largest smart-home pros picked up more brands of video doorbells and smart locks. The category itself got a big mass-market boost from giants like Amazon and Walmart, which introduced systems for unattended access for in-home deliveries.
In the video-doorbell category, more CE Pro 100 dealers offered Ring in the past year, even though the products do not integrate well with traditional home-automation systems. A more integration-friendly brand, Doorbird, surged over the year, gaining about 30 new dealers among North America’s largest smart-home pros.
Next year, look for Google to make its first appearance in the front-door security categories, as the company just began shipping the new Nest Hello smart doorbell and Nest x Yale lock, both of which employ the Thread networking standard and Nest’s own Weave home-automation protocol.
Long before any of these popular consumer brands hit the market, companies like Channel Vision and Holovision dominated the channel in the video-entry category. Their market share among the largest installation companies continues to dwindle, although 20% of CE Pro 100 dealers did name Holovision as an “access control” vendor in the 2018 CE Pro 100 Brand Analysis