It’s a Complicated Matter
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.
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.
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