Outdoor Living ANALYSIS
Staying out for the summer
26
Everyone knows about the smart home, but what about the ‘smart garden’? Jamie Carter explores the market for wireless speakers and outdoor-grade gear
Cup to boost sales? The smaller-scale rugby version may be coming later this year , but as far as major sporting events go, 2019 doesn’t have much to fuel sales of flatscreen TVs and home entertainment gear. However, all is not lost. Summer is here, and for many people that means getting outside and enjoying the garden; of course, this is improved by adding technology – and savvy retailers can put themselves in prime position to capitalise on the warm weather.
W Smart garden? While the smart home market is growing year on hat use is summer without a World
year, don’t underestimate the importance of ‘smart garden’ products designed for the outdoors. It’s primarily a story of two types of small, portable speakers; mains-powered Wi-Fi ‘smart’ speakers that get year-round attention, and battery-powered Bluetooth speakers that see a seasonal surge. “The focus for wireless speakers in recent years has been shifting to Wi-Fi, which is what fuels cloud-connected voice assisted smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home,” says Jack Wetherill, Senior Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting, referring to products with Alexa or Google Assistant within. However, of the 7.8 million wireless speakers that shipped last year in the UK, 95 per cent featured Bluetooth. “Wireless speakers are on a steep trajectory. Bluetooth-only speakers are still the king in terms of volume, but momentum is beginning to
fade with the growth of Wi-Fi functionality, due to the introduction of smart speakers.” That may be so, but figures from Futuresource outline that a staggering 38 per cent of all wireless speakers sold in the UK are Bluetooth-only, 57 per cent also featured Wi-Fi, and the remainder were Wi- Fi only. So for now, Bluetooth is big in Britain.
Easy living Wireless Bluetooth speakers used to be difficult to connect to, but smartphones now make the pairing (and re-pairing) process simple. “Bluetooth speakers provide a great solution for music listening outdoors as most models are battery-powered and there’s no need for anything other than your phone,” says Wetherill. Ask your customer if they want to use the speaker around a swimming pool, either at home or
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
