​We have been noting the slow progression of Matter, the just released standard that is to unify and simplify smart home products, allowing consumers to utilize a wide variety of control platforms to manage their smart devices, rather than being forced to use only those that are dedicated to those devices.  The Matter standard was delayed for over two years while details were worked out was officially released last month to considerable fanfare, with the hope that the standard will unify the smart home space by unifying both large and small smart home brands, a difficult task considering considerable sums have been spent on proprietary products, networks, and control systems over the last few years.
There have been questions as to the ‘real’ support the standard would garner from major smart home brands, and while we expect support from major ‘promoters’ such as Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), Huawei (pvt), LG (066570.KS), Samsung (033570.KS) , and Texas Instruments (TXN) (Full Promoter & member list here), certified product roll-outs will take considerable time as brands incorporate the standard in new products and develop software updates for existing devices and the list of product categories under the new framework expands.
But there seems to be another issue, behind the more obvious ones concerning member support and potential infighting, and that is cost.  We have been able to gather some information as to what the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the organization behind the standard, is charging for the ability of a brand to use the Matter logo.  As with other major connectivity standards, such as Bluetooth, the platform itself is an open standard, available to everyone free of charge, but if a brand wants to display the Matter logo on a product package to alert the consumer that this will be a ‘Matter Compatible’ product, the CSA charges a fee based on what is known as a PID group, sometimes called a License Code or a Product Key, which is used to identify a registered product.  This could be a group of smart light bulbs (max of 4 to a group), or a security camera, but each PID requires a separate license and therefore an additional fee.
Thus far we have seen fees ranging from a bit over $8,000/year to over $11,000/year that must be renewed yearly, which can become quite expensive depending on the breadth of the product line.  There has been some push-back on the fees from smaller brands, who have indicated that they will use the standard, but will not subscribe to the logo license due to the cost, with some larger manufacturers likening Matter to Bluetooth, where the standard is widespread but few license the logo.  While this is certainly an issue for the CSA, as it must support the continuing development of the Matter standard and the certification process, without the visibility of the logo, it will take far more time for consumers to understand what Matter is and how it might help them with their smart products. 
Hopefully, this will not defeat the effectiveness of the standard, which certainly can go a long way toward making smart products more helpful and affordable to consumers, but we expect the seemingly high fees will slow the standard’s growth, despite its potential adoption by brands, leaving much of the proselytizing to those willing to fork over dollars to advertise the benefits of Matter.  We expect the major CE players to absorb those costs, but the other thousands of CE brands that could be a grass-roots groundswell for the standard, will be left to hope that others will raise the banner for them going forward and that they have not made a foolish decision when adopting the Matter standard.

​We have noted that the long-awaited standard protocol for smart devices known as Matter was finally released on September 30, with the hope that it will unify the smart home segment and allow consumers to choose what control systems they wish to use for their smart devices, rather than have to use a number of proprietary systems that could not communicate.  The smart home space has been plagued for years by high cost products, incompatible systems, and difficult procedures for getting smart products ‘paired’ to control devices.  Matter was devised to change all of those issues, first, by relieving smaller companies from having to maintain private networks and letting them  concentrate resources on their smart devices; second, giving all devices a common communication protocol that allows them to speak with each other; and third, making the ‘pairing’[1] of smart devices a simple task.
The CSA Alliance, the organization responsible for Matter, held a conference in Amsterdam this month to showcase Matter compliant devices such as smart locks, smart lighting, and a variety of more complex smart devices, all of which should be capable of running Matter of Wi-Fi and Matter over Thread[2].  Theoretically consumers should be able to buy any Matter certified device and use it on any platform, such as Samsung Smart Things, Apple HomeKit, Google (GOOG), and Amazon (AMZN), without the need for adapters or conversion devices, and while many Matter devices were shown, perhaps consumers should wait a bit before delving into the Matter world as there are still a number of issues that need to be resolved.
One major issue is that there are only a relatively small number of Matter certified devices with minor variations of devices being used to bring up Matter device totals, and many of those Matter certified devices are still limited in what devices can control them.  Thread devices require a border router in order to communicate with Matter devices, which defeats the purpose of the Matter concept, and some Matter certified devices are limited to Android based control devices, again limiting the ability of consumers to mix and match components and control devices, and the pairing process, while better that it is with Bluetooth, is still not what we would call ‘easy’ or anything close to self-discovery.
That said, Matter is a chicken and egg situation, and in the CE space, it usually takes a big CE name to hop on board and get the public to believe in the new protocol.  In this case however, while all of the big CE companies support Matter, they are want to give up the ability to force consumers to use their proprietary systems to control smart devices.  Smaller ‘smart’ companies are happy to leave behind their proprietary network costs and jump in with Apple or Amazon and concentrate on creating valuable smart devices, but the big firms are not nearly as willing to cede anything to the competition, and that will keep Matter from being the global ‘smart home’ savior that it should be and slow its pace of growth.  The concept is correct and the protocol will improve over time, but getting the big boys to play nicely together has never been a tenant of the CE space, unless it is collusion-based, so before you go out and start searching for Matter certified products, it might be worthwhile to let Matter stew for a bit to see how it develops.  The good news is that if you wait and it does catch on, again in theory, you should be able to ‘Matter’ your devices with a software update…in theory…


[1] Pairing is a Bluetooth process where devices exchange initial information to a control system or other device.  Once that has been accomplished the devices no longer have to ‘discover’ each other each time they communicate, which takes time and does not always work easily.

[2] Thread is an IoT wireless mesh network built on open standards.  Given its mesh configuration, it is able to function when a node is damaged or off-line, and does not need a router to integrate with a larger IP network.

​Last week we noted the release of the delayed Matter standard, a platform of protocols that allows smart devices in the home to ‘speak’ a common language, and reduces the necessity for consumers to have dedicated control devices for each brand.  While we were and are certainly a fan of the Matter initiative, we also expressed concerns that while the list of Matter participants reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of the CE space, there were some participants that seemed a bit less than enthusiastic about supporting the standards that would allow consumers to choose any control systems for their smart home products regardless of whether it was made by the device manufacturer, lowering the overall cost of smart home products, a major drawback for the industry in the past. 
The reason for our concern was the lack of support from CE giant Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), who has been promoting its ‘Smart Things’ platform quite heavily in recent months.  While press support from a number of the key Matter board representatives came at the time of the Matter release, Samsung was missing from the list and we feared that the South Korean giant may be backing away from the standard in favor of its own ‘smart’ platform.  It seems that it took Samsung just a bit longer to join the excitement but has now indicated that it is supporting the Matter initiative in a post last night, a key to the necessity for support from all major CE players..
“The seamless experience (Samsung’s) will extend beyond Samsung’s ecosystem through SmartThings’ integration with Matter and Samsung’s membership in the Home Connectivity Alliance. Google and Samsung have worked together to enable users to find and link their devices across platforms by building multi-admin feature on Matter devices. The collaboration will bring more devices and users into the connected home in the future.”
All in this is a major step toward at least the tacit implementation of the Matter standard across the smart home industry, which should help to reduce the cost of smart home products and give them at least a fighting toward interoperability.  As the smart home industry has been plagued with proprietary systems and high cost, the ability of Matter to allow devices, control systems, and networks to ‘speak’ a common language, gives consumers the choice of using a common control device for what used to be proprietary devices, and gives brands an incentive to compete on cost, which will drive consumer demand.  It will likely take a year or two for smart home brands to make changes to their way of thinking, particularly smaller brands, and longer for consumers to understand the benefits of the Matter certification, but in the long-run it should go a long way toward making the smart home market one that makes consumer’s lives easier rather than making them jump through hoops to turn off a light or check the thermostat.