Apple has made public what I have suspected from a long time, they want a share of the home automation market. In addition to that they want your location data collected by their iPhone, ipad etc., to provide the service. In 2010/2011 Apple came under a lot of pressure to say why they were collecting customers location data and what they were doing with it.
In the next six years the global home automation market is expected to worth over US$16 Billion, this is according to a report from Transparency Market Research. Competition is growing between broadband service providers, telcos and utilities where different parties are offering packaged/bundled services. North America is expected to remain the most valued market, with safety and security as the preferred product followed by energy management.
Perceptive Automation, the creator of Mac-based home automation solution Indigo has announced that they are partnering with FortrezZ a manufacture of security and wireless automation products. The strategic agreement will allow support for FortrezZ products in Indigo. The partnership will allow seamless integration of FortrezZ devices into automated homes using Perceptive Indigo.
Amazon has been selling home automation products for a long time now but they have now officially launched their own home automation shop.
Connected home solutions companies Paragon Technology, S3 Aurant, Cyber Sound, DSI Entertainment, Studio AV and Engineered Environments have are coming under one umbrella – VIA International. The companies, which are based across the Western United States (Colorado, Utah, Northern and Southern California, Arizona, and Montana), are creating what they called digital concierge services for the home.
Savant is offering home owners more flexibility in managing our lighting, with the introduction of its Wi-Fi smart lighting control system. SmartLighting can be used as both a standalone lighting control platform or as part of a complete Savant automation system. Each Wi-Fi keypad has its own dimmer that let you manage it individually from your phone app or as part of a larger Savant home control system.
Perceptive Automation, the leading provider of Mac-based home automation software, today announced the immediate availability of Indigo 6, an update to the company's intelligent home control and automation server for Mac OS X. With Indigo, users can easily monitor and control lights, appliances, thermostats, lawn sprinklers and dozens of other items found in the home, thereby helping to reduce energy usage.
From a hobbyist activity, home automation has gone mainstream creating a market worth billions of dollars. To prove it and to fly the flag for the sector, this month Control4 was list on the Nasdaq stock exchange (CTRL) as a purely home automation solution company. Today the company is worth $500 million and with its stock trading around the $20 mark, but looking back how did a company selling geeky solutions got this far.
Due to release this autumn, the Revolv home automation solution promises to change the way we manage our connected home appliances. The company - previously Mobiplug Networks Inc but now Revolv said those interested can pre-order the package which comes with the Revolv Hub, Revolv App which feature remote access plus GeoSense automation. For only $299 you can manage your Sonos, Hue lighting, Yale automatic locks, and more, all from a single app.
Home automation and the devices that support this solution have had a lot of bad press over the last two weeks. As a supporter of the products and the technologies to goes into it to make it all possible, personally I was embarrassed by it all. From a professional standpoint I can see the benefit of highlighting these issues and a lot coming out of it. Home automation and smart home solutions have come a long way since 1933 when it was a theme at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.