The largest producer o0f locks in the world, Assa Abloy, is turning its focus to the largest emerging market for locksmiths and lock makers. This emerging market is the production of smart technology enabled phones. The Sweden based company has already been beaten to the punch by numerous smaller American companies, but is still looking to use it clout as the largest lock maker in the world, to force their way into the smart lock market. Smart locks look to give home and business owners the utmost in convenience. Not only can customers easily access their locks directly from their phones, but sending time specific access to other individuals who have smartphones is as easy as pushing a button.
Why look to smart locks now?
There are many reasons that getting into the smart lock industry is a wise move for all established lock companies, however those companies which have selected to just begin development now are already behind schedule. The August Smart Lock has already begun to be shipped to those customers which pre-ordered the product and Lockitron is looking to do so in the near future. Specifically August will be available to the residential market by October of this year, making it one of the first mass produced smart locks to hit the market. This release should be buoyed by the fact that August now has a deal with Apple that will allow for the most easy access possible from iPhones.
This quick action by smaller start-up companies should not scare a lock manufacturing behemoth like Assa Abloy. Due to their large scale distribution and development capabilities it would not be a shock that Assa Abloy were able to quickly develop and send to market a smart lock which rivals the functions of August and Lockitron. Assa Abloy would be smart to capitalize on this as soon as possible now that smart locks are projected to be a 3.6 billion dollar industry within the next five years this would be a sharp increase of the current number of 261 million dollars. Assa Abloy have gone on the record to say that they know this is likely a technology that customers will desire and they want to be at the forefront of production once smart locks become common enough for mass production.
In Assa Abloy’s case, they must hope that they have not already missed the boat in regard to smart locks. With smaller companies like August and Lockitron already hitting the market, it would behoove Assa Abloy to develop a plan for expansion into smart technology as soon as possible. With technological prices decreasing, as smart phone use increases, these smart locks are poised to make a huge boom in use. It remains to be seen if it will be easy for Assa Abloy to enter the fray, when they do decide to, but the partnership that August has with Apple puts August in the best position to be successful going forward. It will be interesting to see what Assa Abloy is able to produce or if their share of the market will be much smaller due to delayed response to customer desires.
3 Comments. Leave new
I’m still trying to decide whether to work with smart locks. Some of us old guys have to learn to keep up with the times I suppose. Still, sounds pretty nice to have the lock work with smartphones.
Maybe a bit premature, but how do you see the future of locksmithing? Do you think everything can and will become remote and keyless? It seems with new technologies we are headed in that direction. I think it would be interesting, but can’t imagine less keys on my ring! Curious, and thank you for posting.
There is no doubt that, for the time being, traditional lock and key sets will not be disappearing from the market. However, it certainly will be interesting to see as these technologies become cheaper to mass produce, whether consumers will choose the convenience of new technology over the familiarity that they have with traditional lock and key sets.