Consumer technology brands, chiefly from web scale companies, will continue to push into the smart home market in 2019, according to a webscale smart home forecast from research firm Strategy Analytics.

However, rather than hardware dominating those purchases as it has traditionally tended to do, services will dominate the home technology in spending in the new year, Strategy Analytics says.

Among the top services the company sees are monitoring for the elderly and services from technology giants Amazon and Facebook.

Webscale Smart Home Forecast

More specifically, Strategy Analytics predicts:

• Facebook entering the smart home market through its Portal video calling device
• Amazon partnering with a major national home insurance provider
• Apple introducing a lower-cost Home Pod to expand Home Kit’s footprint
• Monitoring of elderly and disabled people emerges as an important smart home service
• Service providers replace individual offerings with blends of entertainment and smart home control

Though not specifically mentioned by Strategy Analytics, any growth by the companies mentioned above is likely to be offered by other major competitors, such as Google.

As a result, Strategy Analytics expects disruption to established businesses.

“The evolution of the smart home market, and the emergence of the intelligent home, will take time, and 2019 will showcase some big steps forward,” said Jack Narcotta, senior industry analyst, strategy Analytics’ Smart Home Strategies research service, in a prepared statement.

“Less than 10 years ago many asked what the smart home market would look like,” said Bill Ablondi, director, Strategy Analytics’ Smart Home Strategies research service, in a prepared statement. “Now, we’re identifying which companies and what marketing and technology strategies are going to win.”