In August, Vivint (formerly APX Alarm) reached an important milestone as a company when the one millionth installation of its home security/home automation system was carried out in the Alabama home of a Mr. James Owen. At the time of this writing, the company is said to be serving around 560,000 customers.
Is Vivint’s customer retention so poor that it has managed to lose some 440,000 customers since it was formed twelve years ago? An anonymous industry source with close ties to Vivint informs me that the reason for the discrepancy is that for the first 8 years of its lifespan, the then APX Alarm sold of its customers to rival security companies as part of its dealer program.
Since 2007, the company has kept hold of its own customers and I am led to believe thatin the last two years alone, the company has taken on board approximately 150,000 new subscribers in 2010 and 2011 - 300,000 in total.
According to ABI Research's recent report entitledHome Automation and Monitoring, approximately 557,000home automation systems were shipped in 2010, meaning Vivint had a 27% market share.
All of this is also good news for SaaS (Software as a Service) vendor Alarm.com, which provides the core technology behind Vivint's offering. Alarm.com also counts GE Security, FrontPoint Security, Protect America, and TYM Security among its customers and if each is performing as strongly as Vivint, Alarm.com holds a lofty and indeed, enviable position in the home automation software platforms market.
