Steve Rogerson ponders on how smart-home technology is finding its way into our lives.

I had a surprise recently. Not the usual kind, but one within the words of a press release. This came from UK mobile phone company EE, which had some odd statistics from my home city of Nottingham.

The release was announcing the revamping of its store in the city, changing it from a mobile phone shop it into what it calls an East Midlands Experience store. I have been round it; it is still a mobile phone shop with a few extras, which it fairness makes it a little more interesting.

However, the release gave out some stats about Nottingham that led to it choosing the venue for this experience store. Apparently, the city has the highest proportion of people owning a smartphone (84%) and smartwatch (33%) of any urban population in the UK.

Now, I can believe the smartphone figure; it sounds about right for the whole country, but a third owning a smartwatch? Doubting this figure, I did my own unscientific survey this week walking around the city on a warm day when most people were not wearing sleeves and so revealing their watch status. Well over half, in fact around 60 to 70%, had no watch on at all. Of those that did have a watch, I’d say about half had a smartwatch. Hard to be accurate as some smartwatches are quite clever at disguising their smartness. So, that puts it at about 15 to 20% having a smartwatch, well below the 33% EE claims.

The EE research, conducted over a year ago by Opinium, was only of 2000 people nationally, with regional figures boosted, so not a massive sample. My walk-around sample this week was probably larger for Nottingham.

The research also said Nottingham residents spend the most time using smart home tech on an average day, though it didn’t quantify this. This got me thinking, because despite all the hype few people I reckon actually go out and say I want to buy a smart home. However, I suspect not many homes now have no smart-home tech at all.

Just looking at my very unsmart house, there is still smart tech there. Buy a new telly, it will have smart features, as mine does, and it is already a few years old. My new boiler installed last year lets me warm up the house on my way home. When I switched my home security system from ADT to Verisure, it came with smart stuff, like a video doorbell and the ability to talk to people knocking on my door when I am away. I admit, though, most of these conversations are along the lines of, no that is not a safe place to leave the parcel; take it away and bring it back tomorrow.

More smart tech will undoubtedly creep into my home in the next few years as I replace household appliances, though this is not coming from any desire on my part.

This creeping smartness seems to be the way it is going, and figures from around the world suggest Nottingham is not unusual. Market watcher Statista is predicting smart-home revenues in the UK to top 10% CAGR from now till 2029. In North America, around half of households have at least one smart-home product. Europe is around the one-third mark. And, according to Grand View Research, Asia-Pacific accounts for nearly a third of the global smart-home market with household penetration forecast to hit 65% by 2027.

All these figures must, of course, be treated a little cautiously, not least because there is no clear definition of what actually is a smart-home device. Does my smart TV count? It doesn’t interact with anything else in the household, so maybe not. What about the computer in my home office? The smartphone in my pocket?

That problem was illustrated by the surveys I looked at before writing this, with some having penetration figures for this year in the 80 or 90% region. I can only assume their definition of what constitutes a smart-home device is even more relaxed than mine. Maybe it even includes my old PDA that has been gathering dust in the bottom of a drawer for more than two decades. What about my Filofax? No, not going there.

So, where does that leave us. It is clear the smart-home market is booming. Most new builds have at least the minimum smart-home technology; many have much more. As for existing houses, even those that are not interested in smart tech will find it creeping – that word again – into their lives as appliances break down and are replaced. Which reminds me, I really must do something about getting a smart meter; negotiating the narrow stairs down to my cellar with a torch to read the meters once a month is becoming a pain.

Oh dear, am I on the slippery slope to smart-home addiction?