'The connected home' is going to be big at CES
SAN FRANCISCO — Home, suite home.
The connected home is edging toward widespread reality after years of promise and more than a fair amount of hype. It will be a major topic of conversation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Samsung Electronics CEO Boo-Keun Yoon is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech on the Internet of Things on Jan. 5. Several major vendors, including GE, plan to display their wares in a smart home exhibit at CES.
Wireless devices that monitor and adjust a house's temperature, lighting and security systems are sprouting in homes and apartments as televisions did in the 1950s, microwaves in the 1970s and flat-screen TVs in the 2000s.
"We're still in the age of educating consumers, who have not embraced the concept yet," says Michael Wolf, chief analyst at NextMarket Insights, a market-research firm. "Perhaps, Apple or Google builds something that ties it all together."
Regardless, the projections illustrate the appetite for everything from connected thermostats to connected switches, light bulbs, beds, sprinklers and toothbrushes. About 70% of Americans want to control something via their mobile devices at home without leaving bed, according to a Lowe's study.
"People are becoming more familiar and comfortable with smart light bulbs and smart door locks," says Steve Fernholz, CEO of Droplet, which has developed a smart sprinkler system that combines robotics, cloud computing and connected services to reduce outdoor water consumption by 90%.
The market will rocket, Fernholz says, when consumers look to devices that "eliminate an annoying problem like finding a lost wallet or keys."
THE CONTENDERS
When Google acquired Nest for $3.2 billion in January 2014, it emphatically signaled the Internet of Things and Connected Home had arrived.
The acquisition presaged a flurry of activity this summer in the smart-home market. In rapid succession:
•In early June, Apple announced HomeKit, a platform that lets iOS customers securely control locks, lights, video cameras, doors, thermostats, plugs and switches with their iPhones. HomeKit can be operated by Siri voice commands.
•In late June, Quirky introduced a stand-alone business for its open technology platform called Wink. Wink has two platform partners: GE and The Home Depot.
•In July, Nest launched Thread Group, which includes chip companies ARM Holdings, Freescale Semiconductor, Samsung and Silicon Labs. Big Ass Fans, which makes ceiling fans, and lock maker Yale are also members of the group, which will certify Thread-compatible products in 2015.
•In August, Samsung spent a reported $200 million to buy the SmartThings platform, which requires its SmartThings hub ($100) to be online and connected to the SmartThings Cloud.
But the path to a smart home is fraught with obstacles. A standards battle has complicated the most basic of principles — how to connect all the devices so they seamlessly communicate with one another.
And then there is the thorny issue of retrofitting existing homes to accommodate all the newfangled wiring, light fixtures, heating and speakers, door locks, cameras and displays. That can be darn expensive.
No surprise, then, that the inflection point is still around the corner, says Dinesh Sharma, vice president of marketing for networked economy at SAP, which builds systems that help aggregate data for connected homes.
"The killer app that provides the tipping point has not materialized," he says. "But if you have any doubts about the market, walk down the aisle of a Home Depot or Lowe's. You see connected devices, and it's not just Nest."
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