The
idea of creating a smart home is working its way through the entire value chain.
There are smart things consumers can buy and take home, such as a WeMo home automation switch that allows
anything plugged into it to be turned on or off via smartphone.
Smart light bulbs from companies including GE and Osram Sylvania allow consumers to take control of lighting remotely, so lights
can be dimmed and color adjusted remotely, modifying the entire behavior of getting up to turn a light on or off.
A bit more intricate creations, such as smart thermostats from Nest and smart
locks from Schlage, Yale and Kwikset, need a bit of home installation know-how on the part of buyers.
Various hubs came along so consumers could manage more than one device through a central
system of sorts.
For example, Samsung partnered with Logitech to create the Pop Home Switch, basically a button that a consumer can customize to control any connected device in their home.
Taking automation yet another step further, Philips Lighting recently introduced a sensor called Hue, which tracks in-home movement and turns appropriate bulbs on in less than a second. Unlike
traditional motion sensors, the system recognizes light levels around it and adjusts accordingly.
And now the smart home is moving way up the value chain, to the actual house creation
stage.
Some major homebuilders are now incorporating Apple’s HomeKit so that a new house comes with it built in.
This means that a new house could come with connected
thermostats, smart locks, lights, cameras and audio, all pre-connected to comprise a smart home system
This is a good example of how the Internet of Things is evolving.
Rather than
consumers seeking out piecemeal, smart things, for one reason or another, they are more likely to be purchasing things that have connectivity, or smarts, already baked into the product.
Rather than a consumer heading to a store in search of a smart lightbulb, the next replacement lightbulb needed will, by default, be a smart light.
This is not an overnight phenomenon but
it is evolving in real time.
That process is creating a new platform for marketing and advertising. And everything in it will be connected to everything else.