Essential Install | Smart Thinking
The End Of The World
Is Nigh, Or Is It?
Bruno Napoli of IoT remote monitoring platform
manufacturer Kirka recently wrote an article arguing
that a large part of the installation market is going to
switch for good from installers to Google, Amazon,
Facebook and Apple (GAFA). Daniel J Sait takes a view.
Big companies
have changed the
market, but will
they replace it?
Bruno’s article when fi rst published on Ce Pro US and again on Ce
Pro Europe caused quite a stir with installers complaining he was
talking the industry down. Bruno did raise some interesting points
however, so we thought it would be a good idea to take a look.
First up, Bruno argued that GAFA is about to take over a large part
of the market with its new affordable smart solutions. Now whilst it is
undeniable that these companies have entered the market and will
change it, does this mean less work for pro installers? We would argue
it could lead to more. GAFA will always be operating at the lower
end of the market, a place where DIYers will operate and often where
margins are so low that pro installers would not want to go there
anyway; so is GAFA really taking work from installers? Or just creating
a new category that some larger install companies might be able to
operate in delivering large numbers of installations? Or one that whilst
not presenting an actually opportunity to many, may create awareness
for the concept? I would argue that this presents an opportunity. Look
at the functionality that GAFA can provide on their own, it’s basic and
not that reliable. Take Amazon Alexa for example, on its own, how
useful is it really? It’s only good when paired with a proper home
automation platform. Google and Amazon won’t have it all their own
way; more sophisticated systems like Josh.ai are challenging them and
the larger home automation platforms will develop their own version
– it’s already happening. We also have to ask ourselves, what type
of industry do we want to be? We need decent margin by proving a
service that people can’t get elsewhere. GAFA will never get anywhere
near offering what a pro installer can. Much of this is just evidence of
a more mature market; did quality car manufacturers stop production
when the Mini came out? Of course not.
One of the other points Bruno made was that the install industry
cannot compete with GAFA marketing budgets. Well he is right
there, we can’t, but why would we want to? You could argue that
large corporations are doing us a favour spending billions promoting
concepts that we know how to do better. So what if lots of people
rush out and buy an Amazon Echo? They will realise it can’t actually
do very much on its own and even if they add lots of IP addressable
products at the around the same price point; the functionality is
still going to be well south of what can be achieved.
The other factor here is what I call the ‘bother’ factor. Yes,
a consumer could buy lots of kit themselves and install it,
the argument goes it’s so easy now with everything
being self-discoverable via IP. Really? How
many times in your life have you purchased
something or embarked on a project thinking
it was going to be easy, only to realise
actually it’s not and you just don’t have
the knowledge or the time to get it right?
In theory everyone can do their own
gardening, so why then are garden
and landscaping services such a huge
market? Companies providing these
services don’t sit about worrying
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June 2017 | 19