Spark confirms move into smart home security

Wednesday, 3 June 2015, 10:19 am
Press Release: Spark

Spark confirms move into smart home security

Spark New Zealand has confirmed it will begin offering smart home security services later this year, with the beta launch of a new product this week. Called Morepork, the product allows customers to control and monitor their homes remotely from their smartphones.

Morepork is the latest play from Spark Ventures and follows the launch of internet TV service Lightbox and smart data service Qrious. It heralds a move by Spark into the rapidly emerging “smart living” market, presenting a smart alternative to traditional security and alarm systems.

In a sign of the potential it sees in this space, Spark has appointed Gemma Croombs to the position of General Manager Smart Living – responsible for bringing to market smart home technologies that will make New Zealanders’ daily lives easier. Morepork is the first product to take flight.

Croombs says internationally most consumers start their journey to the Smart Home with a security product. “We’re looking at how this market is developing globally and, as a digital services company, Spark naturally sits at the heart of a smart home because we have the mobile technology and the network to connect consumers to the things they love.”

Smart Home takes centre stage

The Consumer Electronics Association projects US sales of ‘smart energy’ and ‘smart security’ systems alone will total $574 million this year, up 23 percent from 2014, making smart living one of the fastest growing consumer electronics categories globally.

Says Croombs: “We know we are living in a world where it’s disrupt or be disrupted, so we’re developing a range of smart, useful products that make life easier for our customers.”

“More than 70 per cent of our customers now own a smartphone and this is estimated to grow to around 80-90 percent within a few years. New Zealanders are using their smartphones as the “remote control for life”, so it makes sense they will want to use an app to look after their homes. The ‘smart home’ took centre stage this year at both the Mobile World Congress and the Consumer Electronics Show, where 2015 was dubbed: ’The year to raise your home’s IQ’.

The watchful guardian

Croombs says the product is named after the morepork, a native New Zealand owl.

“When we were looking at what to call the product, we learnt about the role the morepork, or rūrū, plays as the watchful guardian. This seemed the perfect symbol for a service that gives people peace of mind by watching over their homes when they are away.”

Details of the product are under wraps until the full commercial launch of Morepork later this year as Croombs says the beta stage is an important step in the final development of the product.

Smart Living: what you need to know

1. Spark is confirming its move into home security from your smartphone

2. The product is called Morepork

3. The move signals Spark’s commitment to the fast-growing “smart living” category

4. Spark has appointed Gemma Croombs to the position of General Manager Smart Living

5. Morepork will launch in the next few months

ENDS

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