More on Matter
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.
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.
RSS Feed