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Feb 4, 2019

Survey: Homeowners Want Simple, Smart Appliance Solutions

Whirlpool sunset bronze smart appliances

A new survey from Whirlpool finds that homeowners increasingly want smart home solutions that will make their lives simpler and more efficient.

Seventy-two percent of the survey’s 2,000 international respondents indicated that they are looking for simpler, faster ways to help manage their lives. The majority of respondents felt that both cooking (52 percent) and laundry (58 percent) take up more of their time than they want.

“The responses we received to this survey were abundantly clear: Consumers said they need simpler, faster ways to manage their lives—in other words, they still feel products for the home aren’t solving these problems,” says Christian Gianni, senior vice president of product development at Whirlpool. “When it comes to smart home technology adoption, the technology must provide a purposeful solution in their lives.”

The survey also found that about three-fourths of respondents want smart appliance features that reduce food waste (74 percent), manage water use (75 percent), and save money (78 percent). Sixty-four percent of respondents also felt it was important for appliances to help save on electricity costs, and 69 percent want the ability to personalize appliance functionality.

Whirlpool intends to debut a number of innovations addressing these needs in 2019 and has already launched a digital recipe platform and mobile app, Yummly.

 

This story originally appeared in the Winter 2019 issue of PRODUCTS. See the print version here.

 

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