Samsung, ADT team up on home security kit, competing with Nest
Alarm company ADT is teaming up with Samsung to sell a self-installed smart home security kit, setting up a head-to-head competition against a similar service that Alphabet’s Nest Labs revealed last month.
Samsung and ADT will offer a $550 kit, which includes a motion detector, a touch-screen control panel and sensors for doors and windows, with an optional monthly subscription to a monitored security service that will notify authorities of a break-in or fire.
The companies say they are targeting the nearly 80 percent of homeowners who historically have stayed away from subscribing to a professional security service and, in particular, tech-savvy younger people who rent rather than own their homes or apartments.
For an extra $24.99 per month, ADT will monitor the sensors and contact the homeowner if it detects a potential unauthorized break-in. The company won’t require a long-term contract — so the service can be started and stopped at any time using only a smartphone app, said Bill Lee, Samsung’s vice president of home products. The companies will also offer a $200 package with fire, carbon monoxide and water detection sensors, and ADT will charge an extra $14.99 per month to monitor those devices. Samsung also plans to release a video monitoring device early next year.
“This will appeal heavily to Millennials,” Lee said during a recent preview in San Francisco.
Samsung hopes to attract more customers to its SmartThings technology, which connects dozens of third-party connected home devices: thermostats, lightbulbs, doorbells and door locks. The technology also works with virtual assistant speakers Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
The ADT control panel, which is compatible with SmartThings technology, gives the 143-year-old New Jersey company a way to tap a market it hasn’t been able to reach.
Only about 22 percent of U.S. homeowners have a professionally monitored home-security system, and most of those have been installed by the companies, said Parks Associates senior analyst Brad Russell. ADT has about a quarter of that market, leading competitors Vivint, Comcast’s Xfinity Home and Moni.
The overall market has remained flat for several years, but should generate $15 billion in revenue this year, Russell said.
But the vast untapped portion of the market includes homeowners and renters who don’t want to pay the $40 to $60 per-month fee or would rather install and monitor their own equipment, Russell said.
Traditionally, security companies recouped the equipment and installation costs with long-term contracts, he said. But that left the door open for companies like SimpliSafe, which offers do-it-yourself equipment and a monthly $14.99 monitoring fee.
“Younger consumers are less willing to pay for a monitored service,” Russell said.
Now, there’s a veritable land rush of new home-security products from tech companies like San Francisco’s August Home. Last week, Alphabet expanded its home-security lineup with Nest Secure, a $499 package that includes a base control, motion sensor and a keyfob to arm and disarm the system. Dallas’ Moni Smart Security, which renamed itself last year from Monitronics, will provide the optional professional monitoring service for Secure.
Moni plans to reveal the service’s monthly fee later this fall; it also will not require a long-term contract and customers can choose a month-to-month option, said spokeswoman Lindsay Lougée.
The Samsung-ADT kit will be available at Best Buy stores and online starting Oct. 29. Nest’s starter pack is scheduled to ship in November.
Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bevangelista@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChronicleBenny
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