For years one of the biggest obstacles to a real smart home market was the fact that nothing much worked with anything else. help make that happen.
In other words companies tended to work in digital silos with different systems and gadgets often locked up behind proprietary walls. But that’s now looking like a very old story.
In just the last year or so the big players like Google, Samsung and Amazon have all launched digital home assistants that play nice with all sorts of the same devices around the house. Meaning gone are the days when you needed to stick to one system, a set bunch of gadgets or a series of apps to control it all. Apple is also rumoured to be coming out with a smart speaker soon too
Its a race to own the smart home that’s making all sorts of companies see integration as the way forward. Harmon Kardon ’s new smart speaker uses Microsoft’s Cortana, IFTTT-the name stands for if this, then that-is offering a one command system working with varied devices while even the most proprietary of them all, Apple, is set to let Siri take orders for Belkin’s WeMo gadgets.
The first chink in the smart home fortress came when big and small tech companies started to offer their proprietary software to outside developers, a process that’s let in a breath of fresh through the smart home.
Nest, the smart home thermostat now owned by Google, has been the poster child for the new spirit of integration. In fact Google now has a ‘Works with Nest’ website so you can keep up to date on all the latest gadgets compatible with Nest and other devices using Nest tech.
This is all good news for consumers as its making setting up and running the smart home a lot simpler but also far more useful. And even if the sheer amount of choices and announcements can still seem confusing for most people, the improved compatibility of systems and gadgets is giving the smart home real appeal and a better reputation.
Its a little hard to know where the push to integration will take the smart home market, but its clearly just getting started as companies begin to test how collaboration can work.
It’s a promising start, but I think just getting all the connected gadgets to talk will stall if the industry isn’t talking more broadly about what consumers need to really get on board and how we can all help make that happen.