US-based Metova has announced the results of its second annual survey explaining latest consumer trends and the sentiment of more than 1,000 consumers on IoT and connected home technologies – with many viewing it as the ‘wave of the future’ but having concerns over privacy and connected devices.
Among the surveyed consumers, less than 25% of respondents thought that they have a better understanding of the IoT, whereas about 75% said they own at least one IoT device. Additionally, 85% of the consumers would like to be able to monitor their utility usage in real-time with connected devices and select a utility provider over a competitor, based on that ability if given a choice.
Jonathan Sasse, president and CMO at Metova, said: “We see notable growth and adoption of connected smart devices and increased demand for real-time monitoring of utility usage – yet surprisingly most consumers are not sure what the Internet of Things means.
“As consumers continue to incorporate Internet of Things into their everyday lives, it becomes critical that businesses, both established and new, take note and provide their customers with the facilities, transparency, and convenience they are accustomed to through the use of IoT technologies and connected devices,” added Sasse.
Research involving UK-based organisations in critical industries such as healthcare, transport, and manufacturing last month suggested that IoT attacks may cost the country’s economy over £1 billion annually due to lax security measures. This study conducted by Dutch software firm Irdeto found attacks on IoT equipment caused £244,000 in losses on average. Malware attacks were the most common form of breach and over half of the polled businesses suffered an outage from an IoT-related attack.
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