Is the Smart Home Market Ready for a Makeover?

The smart home has existed – at least in theory – for many years and yet we’re still struggling to bring the concept to life. We want products that make our lives easier but having a high-tech home can be far from straightforward.

If we buy smart light bulbs, speakers, cameras, or appliances from different brands and each one comes with a corresponding app, then connecting, controlling, managing, and updating all these devices can be frustrating. The mishmash of devices and apps we’re left with often means we fail to realize the potential of the technologies. We give up, and too many products gather dust in basements or fill recycling bins when they should be enhancing our environments.

Industry leaders have realized they have an opportunity to streamline the smart home experience. The Connectivity Standards Alliance has spent the past three years working with well-known brands to develop a new protocol, now called Matter, that changes the way devices are connected and configured so they can communicate with each other, as well as with apps and the cloud. It also improves the speed, security and reliability of the connection. 

The Matter protocol could transform the smart home – and the industry. Here, I describe how.

The evolution of the Smart Home

In the early days, many brands raced to get their products to market, which created a wide selection of devices consumers can choose from at different prices. Many are positioned as delivering one of three benefits:

• Convenience e.g., controlling devices remotely
• Energy and cost savings e.g., automating lighting or installing smart thermostats
• Entertainment e.g., lighting that changes color

Demand for smart home devices remains strong. The market is expected to grow to $280 billion by 2026 - more than triple in size within five years. But as the industry matures it’s becoming clear that developers, manufacturers, and brands must make installing and operating the devices simpler if they want to take the next steps.

According to our Smart Home Intelligence Service, consumers usually have six to 10 smart products in their home and will sell themselves on the benefits of buying even more if they see their value. In some cases, brands already deliver a seamless experience if users remain within their ecosystem. But one of Matter’s key features is enabling connectivity across brands so we can benefit in new ways. For example, in time, consumers may be able to connect their appliances, or their heating and cooling equipment, with their energy supply to improve a home’s efficiency.

This requires a change in focus. Until recently, many in the industry concentrated on developing hardware and must now optimize the software on a device to enable them to interact with other products and improve user experience. So, will all brands finally begin moving in the same direction?

The industry’s response

Matter became available for a limited number of products in October 2022 and the industry’s reaction to it has been mixed. Google, one of the many high-profile brands that supports the standard, recently updated its Home app and extended its support for Matter. 

Philips Hue is another well-known brand that contributed to Matter's development and yet reports suggest it’s pausing its rollout. 

According to other reports, Wemo, the smart home brand of the consumer electronics and networking company Belkin, is reconsidering its position too. But it’s not pressing ‘pause’ like Philips Hue, it’s hitting the brakes entirely.

The responses are an indication of what’s happening in the wider market with the delays covered in further detail here. Despite the challenges, Omdia remains cautiously optimistic about the future of Matter. The standard wasn’t developed as a quick fix to the problems in the smart home market. It was always clear that Matter, as it exists now, is a first not a final iteration. 

Smart Homes could become smarter

Enabling all devices within a smart home to communicate with each other is also vital to realizing the vision for the technologies – creating a connected, intelligent, and automated home. 

In the summer of 2023, Matter will be extended to a wider range of products, including more complex devices such as security cameras and doorbells. This is an important development because it will move the industry closer to that ambition and help to facilitate the smart home experience consumers want and, in some cases, expect. For example, products that can filter out background noise to present us with the most important information, and even act on the findings.

Next steps Matter

Ultimately, the smart home brands will decide what happens next. The Connectivity Standards Alliance created the Matter protocol and will support its development and rollout from a technical perspective. But the brands are responsible for complying with the standard in some or all of their devices. 

They will also decide on the timeline for adoption, which could be months or years before products are compatible and certified. The process itself takes time. Special Validation Events (SVEs) - a step on the path to certification - are hosted by the Connectivity Standards Alliance and can only accommodate a limited number of companies, which means others must wait to take part. 

None of this is surprising. If we look at the way other industries embrace new technologies, for example, the move to electric vehicles in the automotive sector, change doesn’t happen overnight.

Matter could be a turning point, one that enhances consumers’ experience of the devices and boosts the industry itself. If we knew products would just work – that they would interact with other devices as easily as we connect to Wi-Fi, for example – it would almost certainly accelerate our move towards a smart home.

Read Jack Narcotta’s article Matter: Missteps along the way to mainstream for more information on the rollout of Matter or contact us to learn more about the smart home market.