The technological fragmentation of the smart home ecosystem
These days, an increasing number of innovative devices are launched to make home smarter. Smarter means energy saving, more comfortable, safer…
While connected gadgets and wearables have already spread in the mass market, smart home devices expand at a slower pace. Smart homes will change our way of life, but there are some obstacles to overcome for them to widely spread.
The United States have been paving the way for the adoption of smart homes: 7.9 million homes are now equipped with connected devices. Europe is following with 2.7 million homes. The potential of the global market is huge: Berg Insight estimated that by 2019, there will be 69 million households equipped in North America and Europe alone. Nonetheless, mass market adoption will occur only if certain key obstacles are overcome.
As highlighted by Business Insider, the main problem is the technological fragmentation of the smart home ecosystem. Ideally, each device should talk to each other but in reality they all need to be controlled separately. The customer ends up with multiple mobile apps or remote controls making it very confusing.
Mobile applications are a great way to install and setup a new connected device, or evencontrol it when not at home. But they are not suited at all for a daily use within home. It takes 5 to 6 steps and more than ten secondsjust to turn on a light with the associated mobile app. Moreover, current solutions to control connected devices cannot be easily shared and used by all members of the family. Having a smart home should be a seamless experience but, today, smart home devices do not meet customers’ expectations in terms of user experience.
In the end, smart home device owners are often frustrated, and refrain from purchasing additional devices. The smart home market is now in between early adopters and mass market adoption. But the nearly exponential market increase seems to depend on the ability of the devices to interact within the ecosytem.
Originally posted on Sevenhugs’ blog
