automation

I was a reading the summery of a recent report by NextMarket and Vivint, titled ‘The Mass Market Smart Home”.  In it, the authors are proposing that the connected home sector should create more use cases to drive adoption among the general public. Another report I read states that 70 per cent of connected home developers are enthusiasts.  As an analyst of the sector, I think these are worrying numbers; even more worrying for entrepreneur and the investors, who are investing so much into connected home solutions.

Anyone  who has watched the Transformer movies will see some similarities between this new connected home device and the Allspark from the movie.  Developed by London start-up EmoSHAPE, the EmoSPARK as it is called adds emotional intelligence to the connected home.  According to EmoSHAPE, the EmoSHARK aims to be a little more human, it combines emotional learning with enough artificial intelligence that enables it to interact and converse with humans.

Insteon has partnered with Toshiba to include Insteon's home automation and control technology in Toshiba laptops. Insteon announced that the Insteon universal app will be included on new Toshiba Windows 10 laptops shipping at the end of the month. Insteon will be the first built-in IoT application shipping to the masses, giving customers with the Insteon Hub easy, intuitive control of their connected home from their Toshiba laptop.

As the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2015 draws near Apple HomeKit is in the news again.  There are talks about a delayed launch and there are some who said HomeKit will be launch next month at WWDC, but who knows; this is Apple we are talking about when up to now we have not heard anything official. We will just have to wait and see.  One good news around HomeKit, is that Broadcom has been given the stamp of approval as a certified HomeKit components manufacturer even though they were announced as official partner last June.

The connected life style should have a market potential of US $731 billion by 2020, this is according to Frost and Sullivan.  This figure includes revenue from all sectors that touches the connected home.  Cloud computing, mobility, low cost sensors, big data are driving the Internet of Things (IoT) and connected industries.

About 50km west of Tokyo on an old Panasonic factory site PanaHome the housing division of Panasonic Group is building its vision of a smart and sustainable town.  The 600 homes and 400 apartments have all the latest appliances and services of a smart home. All the homes are fitted with solar panels for feeding surplus energy into the smart gird, and the world’s first domestic ENE-FARM household fuel-cell generator.

Zonoff said they have been working with Nest developer program and the official SoundTouch API from Bose to make the compatibility possible. Now Zonoff home automation system owner can add nest thermostat and Bose SoundTouch music system to the list of controllable home appliances.

Microsoft has big ideas and plans for the connected home but with most ideas you need support and partnerships to make them a reality.  Since last year I have noticed that the relationship between Microsoft and Insteon has grown and Insteon it seems has become a key partner in Microsoft’s connected home strategy, something they have been working on for some time.

With the release of it first fitness wearable Microsoft connected home partner Insteon is working with developers to take the Microsoft Band into the connected home.  Insteon announced last week at the Build conference that developers can now use the Insteon’s RESTful API to create home automation apps that use the Microsoft Band.

With the explosion of wearable technology over the last two years the race is on to see who will bring the next big thing to market.  Already Google and Samsung are seen as the big players but with a possible global retail revenue of up to $19 billion by 2018, said Juniper Research; now is not too late for your business to enter the wearable technology market.