Tech war’s new front: Your home
Firms vying to bring ‘I need it’ gadget to market
Visions of the smart home — a house that can set its own thermostat, schedule its own lights and preheat its own ovens — are fast becoming a reality. The technology is becoming smaller, faster and cheaper, opening new opportunities for transforming everyday objects.
In a report last week, International Data Corp. projected that the “Internet of Things,” the industry term for this web of connected products, will generate $1.7 trillion in spending by 2020 — an astonishing number considering it was almost nonexistent five years ago.
Jumping on that wave is a no-brainer for companies, which are trying to convince consumers that everything could be better with a chip. There’s a buffet of options out there. Right now, for around $200 you could pick up a smart thermostat that lets you control your home’s temperature from anywhere. You can pick up sensors to make any outlet “smart” for about $60. Or pay a company such as AT&T, Comcast or ADT to do a lot of the work for you, for as little as $20 or $30 per month.
That’s where, for consumers, it gets a little more complicated. Because you may think you’re buying one gadget — a thermostat, a security system, a smart lock — but what you’re really buying is the cornerstone of a whole system of smart devices that need to work together. By extension, the first smart home device you buy may determine the brand of your next refrigerator, security system or even your car.
“Consumers are asking: If you buy a Nest, are you stuck with Google for the rest of your life?” said Jefferson Wang, of IBB Consulting. “If you buy an Apple TV, are you stuck with Apple?”
The stakes to produce the first “I need it” home gadget are high. And tech giants, which are watching sales of smartphones hit a plateau, are racing to find it. Google and Apple have both laid out ambitious plans for the smart home. The area was a main focal point for Google at its developers conference last month and is expected to be a showcase at Apple’s big developer confab this week.
Analysts say they expect this battle to play out as an extension of the war between Apple, Google and a few other specialty players for early dominance. The first to really crack the idea can capitalize on the gadget “halo effect” — the consumer tendency to buy gadgets that are compatible with ones they already have, which locks them into one of those companies’ worlds.
Apple’s reputation for quality and the loyalty of its fans give it a certain edge, said Wang.
“Apple’s iOS is strong and tends to have faster adoption,” he said. But, he added, “in Google’s favor, Android has a huge developer community, a huge number of customers and existing products like the Nest,” a successful smart thermostat made by the company of the same name. Google bought Nest in 2014, for $3.2 billion.
Nest’s appliances, as well with its Dropcam security systems — the result of another acquisition — have already given Google early home gadget success. And the firm has announced it will expand its ambitions even further with a smart home platform, Brillo, to developers looking to make smart devices for the home that work with other Google-based doodads such as successful Nest thermostat.
That comes a year after Apple first announced its plans for HomeKit, a platform centered around its own software. On Tuesday, the first official HomeKit devices, all of which can be controlled through an iPhone app, hit the market. The launch partners included electronics firm iHome, major smart light bulb-maker Lutron and Elgato, which makes sensors that monitor air quality, humidity, water consumption and energy use. The products work with Apple’s Siri as well, meaning that the voice assistant can now turn on your lights, check your monitors and act as a general remote control for your home.
It’s far too early to predict who will win, said Mark Hung, a Gartner analyst.
“Unlike in the PC or smartphone markets, neither have come out with a whiz-bang story of why (the average person) needs this. It’s still in the exploration stage,” he said.
And Apple and Google aren’t the only dogs in the fight either.
Microsoft and Sony are building out their content offerings to try to control the living room through their forays into entertainment and gaming. AT&T and Comcast, meanwhile, are adding on to their positions as Internet providers to include smart security systems. More traditional home appliance manufacturers such as Honeywell and GE are also joining forces to make their own standards.
And then there’s Amazon, which has taken some small steps into the home, analysts said. Last year, the company introduced the Echo, a stand-alone cylinder that has a voice assistant of its own.
(Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Over time, Amazon has added support for Belkin’s WeMo line or smart switches and even for Google Calendar.
Amazon’s offering is the first representation of how we may interact with our smart homes in the future — by speaking to them in the style of the “Star Trek” computer. But the product is pretty limited at the moment, Wang said. “Echo is a fun product, and an interesting one,” Wang said. “But I don’t think they’re on the same level at all as a Google or an Apple.”
For consumers, the best way to navigate this complex, high-stakes world may be to just sit out for now, Hung said.
“The products aren’t there yet. If you can wait to change your thermostat — and it’s unlikely that you can’t — wait,” he said. “None of these camps or factions have come out with a killer app or a killer product.”