Gadgetory

home is of course one of the great common experiences and concepts for almost all of us a smart home though remains anything but it's still very niche very sort of exclusive a lot of folks are still entirely content walking over to the wall flipping a switch or having a thermostat that learns absolutely nothing what's holding back that smart home revolution I would suggest a big part of it it's four C's first I would say you got a look at cost a light switch today cost what three dollars a smart light switch 30 on up same thing goes for irrigation controllers smart thermostats connected lightbulbs consumers are not seeing that much of a multiple of benefit to match the multiple of price increase then there's complexity we're all born basically knowing how to operate the traditional home I mean little kids can figure out how to do it with barely any instruction real simple real obvious when you go to a smart home now suddenly it's an app infused experience and the apps are all different for each brand they don't always talk together well they are a varying quality of interface now you can integrate them on certain centralizing platforms like like Apple's home for example or Samsung smartthings but that can be a whole weekend project and maybe not for the faint of heart the brightest spot in this area and the biggest story recently in Smart Home has been Amazon's echo which not only has almost every smart home device clamoring to be compatible with it but then lets you control those devices via natural language there's this factor of compulsion most smart home devices are replacing something which does something very simple flicking on a light switch adjusting a temperature these are not very complex tasks not a lot of richness there consumers are having a hard time seeing how you can make something so simple a whole lot better finally cohesion the smart home I believe really leaves the ground when it becomes a smart thing in and of itself right now too often it is a box of smart things these dissimilar smart devices that aren't really beautifully orchestrated together into a home that lives and breathes as a unit to anticipate your needs better now until that part of the market really starts to jail and consumers can see that they can do that and do so with simplicity and reliability I think the smart home remains a little bit niche its job one in the smart market now we've always seen the end user the consumer be the main driver of adoption in consumer electronics they make the decision they plunk down the money they buy it and go use it smart home is a little different we also have to look at the Realty market and the home building factor to other parties that may have a lot to do with adoption different than we see in the smartphone and television market for example know what's next at cnet.com / heinki