Gadgetory

good morning from the scene that stage at CES 2015 I'm rich brown executive editor at cnet joining me this morning are sedo belmont from Chamberlain group I've got robbed Martin's from leg lock maker and over here there's Kris Allen from I devices so thank you all for joining us here today I really appreciate you coming out so we are here today to talk about home kit which if you're not familiar is Apple's sort of brand new Smart Home interface coming to iOS later this year they announced it at WWDC back in June we saw sort of one slide that listed all the partners that are going to work with home kit and now we're starting to see the first products kind of emerged out of that announcement so I wonder if you guys can just kind of go down the row and talk about what products you have here that are support home kit and we'll take it from there sosyal you want to go first sure my name is Seto I'm thrilled to be joining you working for Chamberlain we are they have expertise in the garage door opener space and today at CES we are announcing our Wi-Fi garage door opener which will be home kit compatible okay Rob sure my name is Rob Martin's I'm slegs futurist and director of connectivity platforms we're very excited to be announcing the schlage sense our latest new generation ble lock that is slated to work with home kit and a number of other platforms actually i'm chris allen CEO and founder of I devices we've primarily been known as the grilling and cooking space developer of the iGrow and the kitchen thermometer today we've actually launched iDevices switch it's a smart plug that will work with home kit in production now will be launched in April we're really excited about the home kit initiative and where it's going to take the entire industry so excited to be you so Chris you've got the props set up do you want to kind of go through what you have here and what it can do sure so in essence you have a within home kit we developed the plug this is a iDevices switch so you can plug in any number of different devices to the product we have a lamp here obviously so you can turn on and off your lamp both locally and remotely so if you utilize Surrey within your home you can connect and a Surrey to turn on and off a lamp when you do that it will obviously do that functionality we have timers that you can build into various timers false presents we integrated a night light into the front of the device as well one of the biggest things that we've noticed though in the smart home market is the setup process and that's really what differentiates we feel that our product within home get in the infrastructure that Apple built we're able to really just plug and play the product comes out of the box you plug it into the plug you're into your outlet i should say and you enter an eight digit code and automatically in the background to the consumer it logs it in and registers it with your network and you're off to the races you can do a number of different functionality with it we also embedded both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Bluetooth smart in here as well as Wi-Fi so there's some additional functionality that we get out of that okay so siedel my queue has been out for a little while right and you guys are very open do you support correct me if I'm wrong here smart things bleeder on the wink network a whole bunch of different smart home platforms and now home kit I believe it's coming to Mike you via firmware update later this here so if you already own one of these there's a retrofit device you'll be able to add the home kit functionality later on exactly what does home kit do what does home could get you in the garage so with home kit we have the ability to monitor and control and open your garage door opener from anywhere so if I think about the use cases I don't know how many times you cut leave your home you go around the back and wonder did I click forget to open or close my garage door opener with this product with our new Wi-Fi garage door opener and the integration with home kit now I don't need to worry any longer I know right then and there and I have that peace of mind that my garage door opener is closed but you can do that with all those other smart platforms as well right so adding a home kit is it's a logical extension it's apple right I think a lot of people want to be want to be working with apple exactly and it's about making life's moments easier and this full integration helps us do that what's specifically about home kit it so there's Siri functionality right man i think that that voice activation element is going to me that's what's maybe most exciting about it you know I've only starts sort of started using Siri for text messages if I'm on the road or something but saying hey Siri open the front door hey Sierra turned the lights to me that makes a ton of sense and I think it will make sense to consumers when they kind of get how easy it can be to start using a home smart home stuff in the way they've kind of meant to be used yeah I think that's a that's a great point I mean when you look at the marketplace and when you look at you know all those different devices being having to go into an application and individual applications to do all these things is a pretty laborious process you can probably do it faster manually to go over and turn on/off light switch so having the Sri integration really allows you to say you know really just push a button and talk to it or if it's plugged in and charging you know you simply say hey Suri and it's going to go ahead and start launch that product that's really what got us excited about it and then being part of this marketplace same same for safer slay our big draw was the talk to unlock functionalities fantastic but everybody wants to access their lock in their home in a different ways so we try and provide as many options as possible and we think this is a fantastic way to do it you want to go key you want to go keyless you want to talk to unlock you know you want to put in a pin code you know we have you know a rope bug just a really robust a variety of ways you can access the lock and I think that's what people are looking for they want flexibility they want control and but they still want that security that you know we all expect and that's one of the things that we're really focused on and you know excited to be working with I devices and Chamberlain and we kind of almost think of it as the adults have arrived at the party you know do you do you want to do on a software company you know creating your lock or do you want a lock manufacturer with 95 years of experience creating that you know connected experience and so we're we're growing our partnerships and doing that to continue to innovate but we feel like this is a you know really exciting time for that flexibility so you mentioned securities of course I'm going to pounce all over that in particular with locks and I think it also with garage openers I personally like that you guys are open because i think it and and embraced many different smart home platforms right i mean it makes it easier if I'm a consumer and I just want to kind of get started with the smart home i can i can buy a mic you where i can buy a schlage lock see if I like it and then not regret that purchase later on if want to buy something else that talks to different network you know it's kind of it makes it just easier as a buyer um i would also imagine that the more networks you support the more complex that security picture becomes how do you guys who has responsibility for that is that you guys do you rely on say smart things an apple to take care of that picture talk me through that a little bit well I think from our perspective the expectation for 95 years with the schlage brand has been strong security and now we'd like to drive that more towards innovation you notice there have been a lot of new additions and frankly disruptive messages and new companies coming into the fold we've obviously had a connected products since 2009 we're a little bit conservative based on that we want to make sure that every last detail every last thing that we can control as has been put in place to ensure that expectation that levels security whether it's a key or whether it's the electronic means so anybody that suggests that anything is a hundred percent foolproof is dishonest but what you know our commitment is to our consumer and I know it's the same for Chamberlain is that we're going to put you at the very top level from authentication encryption all the expectations are going to be met in terms of industry standard so just to echo exactly what you'd said a Chamberlain our foundation is in safety and security we've built that into our garage door opener space and with connected home we're extending that into the connected home space there is no we're not sacrificing that safety and security now going to that electronic means so does that mean you guys are coming with your own encryption or your doesn't mean you're working together with the various sort of networking protocols and the various smart home platforms out there who's bringing the actual security tech to your products all I'll say is it's a team approach and we we take it very seriously and it's kyank or to what we do if that locks not secure if that garage doors not secure we're not doing our job ok fair enough so we were talking about open before Chris yep so Mike you are chamberlain and schlage these guys are they work on a number of smartphone platforms you guys have zeroed in on home kit there we have I understand the the launch this year probably makes that logical and branching out from the thermometer state or the thermometer space you've been working in it problem extends to pick 12 but you've clearly picked home kit I wonder if you can talk about that and so are your thoughts on working with the other platforms out there yeah i mean we're always open to working with other platforms you know the truth of matter is that we were we still are grilling and cooking thermometer company we have that business Apple approached us last year to be part of home kit and kind of you know build this product out and we latched on to that you know for us the home automation market prior to that was very congested and there was a lot of different platforms that you could go on and was very confusing to the consumer and we felt my personal feeling was that it was being forced integration into the OS so whether it's Android or iOS you were forcing that integration rather than having come from the top down so when Apple offered the opportunity to create the framework within the you know the iOS that's going to you know address some of the security issues bring in some I'll say organization to some of the chaos that was out there for the consumer that's our biggest concern is when we launch a product want the consumer be able to pick it up off the shelf and know a hundred percent that is going to work with whatever phone or tablet they have and that's some of the confusion that we've even had in the grilling space and the cooking thermometer space where you know not every Android device had bluetooth smart out of the gate so we had to really be very cautious when we launched into Android with a Bluetooth smart thermometer because the last thing you want as a business owner is to have somebody buy a product get home realize it doesn't work return it and then write a bad review about it that's the death nail of any business so we're extremely focused on the user experience and that's been our focus all the way through it you know especially on switch it's out of the box this thing has to work perfectly and be very easily integrated and that's how we feel we're going to get broad breadth adoption in the marketplace you know it's great to be first there's a there's also the caveat that when you first there's an education process has to go on and you can't support everybody make everybody happy I'm not here to be the guy that makes every single person in the marketplace happy but anybody who buys our product and is using an iOS device should know that it's going to work perfectly and it's going to work under percent of the time and we're staying behind it all right um so looks like that gonna ask just to my mind uh are you guys going to stay home kit exclusive then is that sort of like where you're planning your flag no I mean I obviously for launch we're home get exclusive we will branch out as the opportunity arises we do have a relationship with Google in the android market and we're more than happy to continue to develop products under that we are not we're smaller company where you know by far the smallest of the group here with 60 folks but our goal is to create really great products and less of them but make sure that they're the absolute best product that we can develop and so to that end we pick and choose where we're going to go very carefully so we because we don't have the resources that some other companies have to kind of go in many different directions we're very laser-focused will say no to that so that note I think you know you see a lot of co-op edition and other things but what we're also finding at schlage is the the partnerships we're finding are extremely beneficial and we're pulling and pushing each other into markets that we've never been in before so I think that's one of the most exciting things that we're starting already to see it CES 2015 is there are a number of relationships out there that are even a little bit unexpected and we're actively looking for those too I think that the ability to be open I'm not saying you want to be Switzerland I mean we're grade one security lock we have these expectations just like Chamberlain does with my cue but when we can find you know companies like I devices that have a creative innovative core that can help us move forward and move us into different spaces we're going to take a hard look at that and echoing what these two gentlemen said we are excited at chamberlain about this partnership as well because similar to you our focus is relevant intuitive experiences right out of the box so giving those users solutions that make their life easier and giving them solutions that they can use every day yeah so I'll say I've enjoyed covering smart home stuff because it lets me interact with companies I never would have normally so Chamberlain and schlage right so I I certainly wasn't writing about garage door openers before but it's I'm really excited about it now maybe I don't know uh so at a certain point though both of you guys as sort of a state long established companies just in-home good space must have decided we got to get into the smart home game how did that how did that process happen within each year companies what was their one trigger or was it sort of a slow build well I can speak for schlage you know Walter schlage the the original founder of the brand actually has patents going back into the early 1900s in terms of a light in a in a in a lock so it's it's in our DNA but again I think what we're focused on is the consumer and giving them what they're asking for and what we're seeing is we're seeing that consumer interest like you're saying and some other things really ramp and I think in our case because of we have such an important place in the home and it's a sacred place the the you know entrance in egress of your home is a is a critical thing and that that's not something that can be taken lightly we tend to be conservative we want to get it right a hundred percent right all of the time then make the introduction so I think the perception maybe at times that you know hey these these guys might not be innovating at the same pace in reality we are we just need to get it a hundred percent right that expectation is so high it's not just the device is going to work ninety-nine percent of the time it needs to work a hundred percent of the time and I Chamberland we are focused on and worried concerned about solutions that focus on the coming and goings of the home and making sure consumers have the expertise or the experience that they need in their everyday life and that's what we're doing at chamberlain and bringing that into the connected on space these are solutions that they are looking for and so that's our focus there so Chris you the first home kit product the first are non thermometer product you come out with is a plug and it so kind of a commodity product right i mean there there are a lot of other smart plugs out there i think we even saw a couple more home kit plugs announced this week you guys are also in relatively mature markets here i mean there are a lot of locks out there there I know Chamberlain there's a leader in garage openers but there are a lot of other companies out there how do you so there's a lot of exciting tech behind the smart home stuff but the base products are often pretty commodify zabal how do you fight that off how do you stay how do you stay relevant as a Chamberlain brand or as an iDevices brand sure I mean in the beginning we looked at the product space and you know you're right there's other plugs that are smart plugs that are going to come in the home kit market and whether we're exactly first or were one of the first it is irrelevant to us the really I think what the game changer is is that we are an established company we're company that you can trust we have fantastic customer service we stand behind the product you know those are the game changers when you look at really wrote keeping a product relevant in the marketplace and winning out the market share you know our distribution is global we have a lot of distribution throughout North America and so we're not just an online company but when we looked at this we originally said wow we got you know we're doing a plug not really exciting but the exciting part for us as we really researched and looked at it is it's easy installation no wiring no pulling off a thermostat no you know even no offense but note taking apart your door there's nothing else that you have to do is just plug and play so that makes it a very easily attainable product for it virtually any consumer the second part we brought in a price point at 49 99 that's really aggressive and that's a capture a large segment of the market and then what we did is because we develop everything internally and we everything is done soup to nuts within iDevices four walls we really focus on the app and the application side is really what the user experiences today it's great to plug in a product or you know put in a garage door opener or chair milana a schlage lock but at the end of the day the consumer is going to interact with the device through an application so our application is really what we're hanging our hat on and the development of that and the launch of that that you'll see over the next coming months is really what we think is going to differentiate us from a lot of the players in the space because we're not just a software maker like he said we're software and hardware maker that was born in this space and has grown through this space and again does it all in-house so that that's the exciting part for us you're going to see artificial intelligence come into the application you're going to see a real host of different things that are going to blossom that will kind of surprised the consumer at least from my devices another thing I would add to chris's point is hardware's really hard this is one of the things that we're seeing coming through you know I won't name names but you see a lot of people that will make an announcement and they you know come out with something and then it doesn't appear for a long period of time but uh we get hardware and we get these things and I think when you look at the you know the iDevices product and you start to look at ours because we we get the the hardware portions of that allows us to start to stretch a little bit and so we're really focused on the style and design of the locks as well and what you can expect from schlage moving forward not only the electronics crew but on our traditional locking is much more focused on style design and all those things that I think consumers are you know we we we want to have something that the consumer lusts after we want to satisfy that need and so we want people to start thinking about their door we're in their home you know bright brass isn't necessarily hook what you know the first impression you want to get when you when you walk in that home and so we're seeing not only the the tech pole but that style pole is well and we're excited about that that's another thing that energizes us a similar to these gentlemen our consumers are very important to us they are at the foundation of the solutions we bring about so a Chamberlain we have expertise in the garage door opener space we have we have products and solutions that are built on safety security quality and we want to assure our consumers that we'd bring that into the connected home space and that's what we're doing with all the solutions we bring all right well thank you all for joining me we look forward to seeing your products and reviewing them later this year hopefully you get some get some stuff out to us