The smart home was supposed to be big business by 2017, especially now that most Americans have smartphones in their pockets and millions of connected home devices like washing machines and thermostats have been sold. There’s been traction in voice-activated devices, but they’re not necessarily used to control smart devices in the home and are really built to be speakers and personal assistants than smart-home hubs. But with names like Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) leading the smart-home charge, it’s surprising the idea hasn’t gained more traction.
In 2018, there could be a new hub making its way to the market, and it could take the smart home to the next level in some locations. Don’t underestimate energy storage’s importance in the next generation of the smart home.
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What is the smart-home hub?
One challenge is that different companies view the “smart home” differently. Amazon’s Alexa platform is the largest in the smart-home business, with millions of devices sold. It’s also a very open platform that can control thermostats, lights, and even locks with little more than your voice. But Alexa’s platform and APIs are built to connect people to a central hub that will interpret voice instructions, not to automate control of the home in a “smart” way.
Apple has tried to make Home Kit its smart-home hub, and has the capability to bring automation to the home, but hasn’t put much energy into making the platform a valuable tool for Apple device owners. There are lots of devices that connect to Home Kit, but it still isn’t a central app on the iPhone, making it a disappointing development for the smart home.
Alphabet tried to make its $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest the center of its smart-home plans, a hub that would learn and adapt to users over time, but has scaled back on those ambitions recently, even reportedly trying to sell Nest. Voice-activated devices may now be the new smart hub, but the company has a lot of work to do to compete with Alexa on that front.
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