The Connected Home – Does everybody really want it?
Consumer Electronics companies can be likened to professional surfers. They are always looking for the next big wave and since growth in some of the more traditional CE product groups has been slowing, CE companies have been jumping on the ‘connected home’ bandwagon, a subset of iOt. Connected products are being released daily, and while only 10% of US, UK, and Australian consumers indicated that they were using ‘connected solutions’ in a Gartner survey last year, the hype from the CE industry would indicate that nothing is more important than owning a Zencrate Anti-Anxiety Smart Dog Crate (pvt – kickstarter) that will calm your pup with music, fans, and a camera (so you can see him/her shaking in the box) during thunderstorms.
While we are very definitely fans of things that can make life a bit easier (we started with BSR remote controlled outlets in 1975), much of what is touted today is pure marketing, hopefully leading to margin improvement by producers. The kitchen seems to be a big focus for such products, so we look at the rational, or lack of, for this location first, and will follow up with other ‘rooms’ in subsequent notes. Here are the primary categories for connected kitchen items and our comments:
Coffee Maker – “knows when you wake up and starts brewing you favorite brand”[i] – Sounds good and is a bit of an improvement over those ‘old style’ coffee makers that work off a clock setting, but you still have to load it up the night before. No longer will you have to adhere to your coffee maker’s schedule, but little else has changed, except your coffee maker will pester you via smartphone until you fill it for the next day.
Convection Oven – “Starts heating your toast when you step out of the shower each morning” – Wonderful, but the toast would have to be loaded the night before and would be sitting in the convection oven for your 8 hour sleep time. Don’t forget that the convection oven will also remind you to load it up the night before.
Crock Pot – “Starts cooking dinner while you are at work so its ready when you get home” – This has possibilities, although most crock pots run for ~9 hours anyway, but being able to start the crockpot via your smartphone might help if you are going to be early or late. That said, whatever your cooking is going to have to be put in the crock pot by you, either the night before, or before you leave for work, so don’t be too late in starting the cooking or your food will have spoiled before its even been cooked.
Lights – “Automatically turn on when you enter and automatically turn off when you leave”. Finally, and if you have kids you understand immediately, a practical idea, but one that has been around for many years and is easily implemented in a variety of ways.
TV - “Automatically turns on the traffic report when you enter in the morning” – OK, some possibilities here, although not having to press an ‘on’ button doesn’t seem like much of a time or effort saver.
Stove – “Receive an alert when your stove or oven is left unattended” – A good idea, but one that would have to be adjusted to whatever the timeframe is for the items being cooked. If you are cooking a roast for an hour, you would need to be notified if the oven is unattended for more than an hour, but if you are reheating a meal, the oven would have to understand that it should contact you much sooner.
Cabinets & Drawers – “Cabinets and drawers would notify you if small children are accessing dangerous or off-limit areas like cleaning supplies” – An excellent idea, although a bit of overkill considering the many ways in which cabinets can be baby-proofed currently, but has promise if it can understand who is allowed to touch what cabinet.
Many of these items, and this is just the kitchen, are interesting but largely impractical, and will likely make only a slight difference to your daily routine. So the real question will be whether consumers will pay extra for such connected devices. The most practical, auto-lighting can be accomplished by a small sensor in the light switch rather than a ‘connected’ system, unless it is important to you to turn on the lights just before you enter the room with your smartphone…
[i] Quotes are from Twice@Home 3/13/17
While we are very definitely fans of things that can make life a bit easier (we started with BSR remote controlled outlets in 1975), much of what is touted today is pure marketing, hopefully leading to margin improvement by producers. The kitchen seems to be a big focus for such products, so we look at the rational, or lack of, for this location first, and will follow up with other ‘rooms’ in subsequent notes. Here are the primary categories for connected kitchen items and our comments:
Coffee Maker – “knows when you wake up and starts brewing you favorite brand”[i] – Sounds good and is a bit of an improvement over those ‘old style’ coffee makers that work off a clock setting, but you still have to load it up the night before. No longer will you have to adhere to your coffee maker’s schedule, but little else has changed, except your coffee maker will pester you via smartphone until you fill it for the next day.
Convection Oven – “Starts heating your toast when you step out of the shower each morning” – Wonderful, but the toast would have to be loaded the night before and would be sitting in the convection oven for your 8 hour sleep time. Don’t forget that the convection oven will also remind you to load it up the night before.
Crock Pot – “Starts cooking dinner while you are at work so its ready when you get home” – This has possibilities, although most crock pots run for ~9 hours anyway, but being able to start the crockpot via your smartphone might help if you are going to be early or late. That said, whatever your cooking is going to have to be put in the crock pot by you, either the night before, or before you leave for work, so don’t be too late in starting the cooking or your food will have spoiled before its even been cooked.
Lights – “Automatically turn on when you enter and automatically turn off when you leave”. Finally, and if you have kids you understand immediately, a practical idea, but one that has been around for many years and is easily implemented in a variety of ways.
TV - “Automatically turns on the traffic report when you enter in the morning” – OK, some possibilities here, although not having to press an ‘on’ button doesn’t seem like much of a time or effort saver.
Stove – “Receive an alert when your stove or oven is left unattended” – A good idea, but one that would have to be adjusted to whatever the timeframe is for the items being cooked. If you are cooking a roast for an hour, you would need to be notified if the oven is unattended for more than an hour, but if you are reheating a meal, the oven would have to understand that it should contact you much sooner.
Cabinets & Drawers – “Cabinets and drawers would notify you if small children are accessing dangerous or off-limit areas like cleaning supplies” – An excellent idea, although a bit of overkill considering the many ways in which cabinets can be baby-proofed currently, but has promise if it can understand who is allowed to touch what cabinet.
Many of these items, and this is just the kitchen, are interesting but largely impractical, and will likely make only a slight difference to your daily routine. So the real question will be whether consumers will pay extra for such connected devices. The most practical, auto-lighting can be accomplished by a small sensor in the light switch rather than a ‘connected’ system, unless it is important to you to turn on the lights just before you enter the room with your smartphone…
[i] Quotes are from Twice@Home 3/13/17
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