Will Matter Matter?
Matter is out! Matter is a connectivity platform that was developed and is supported by hundreds of CE companies that will allow all devices that are certified by the Matter organization to interoperate. In theory this would allow smart home devices, most of which operate on proprietary networks and protocols, to essentially control each other, giving consumers the ability to cherry pick products that fit their requirements, rather than have to stay with a particular brand for all. The standards were officially released yesterday to developers and a number of test labs were authorized to perform the testing necessary to receive Matter certification and trademark.
There are already over 4000 Matter certified products under many product type categories, with some easily recognizable by consumers and others a bit more esoteric. A few of the more recognizable ones are ‘smart’ plugs, ‘smart’ thermostats, ‘smart’ switch/dimmer, LED bulbs, Motorized curtain & shades, Home hubs, and smoke alarms, while blood pressure monitors, Energy consumption meters, electronic pill counters, and cellular repeaters are less obvious.
The good part of this is that if the standard is successful, you won’t need to have an app or hub to control each brand of smart devices in your house, as, in theory, they should all be able to be controlled from a common platform of your choice, such as Home Pod, Siri, or Alexa, and as should be expected, the standards are being promoted by Apple, Google (GOOG), and Amazon (AMZN), including 28 ‘promoter’ companies, 268 ‘participants’, and 228 adopters. While the names above have taken the promotional reins for Matter, promoter Samsung Electronics seems to be unusually quiet about the release after recently signing a deal with LG Electronics (066570.KS) and Electrolux (ELUX.SE) to support Samsung’s own “Smart Things’ platform, which opens the question of whether the standard will be adopted across the industry or whether it will be the stepchild of a few CE giants that already have their VA products in your home. Without a full commitment from almost all of the CE majors, smaller device manufacturers will hesitate to abandon their own proprietary systems, and the smart home market will remain in the mire that has kept it from growing or being useful to a broad segment of the population in the past.
We have been using smart home products since 1978 when the first X-10 smart plugs (produced by BSR[1]) appeared in RadioShack (pvt) stores, and rarely have we found any group of consumer products that are less user friendly than home automation products on a general basis, hence our skepticism about how easily a standard like Matter will be adopted across the CE space to ‘revolutionize’ the ‘smart’ industry. Aside from the typical years of meetings to iron out the details of the standards, for which we commend the members, there is the problem of convincing both corporate and developmental executives that many of the projects that they have been developing are no longer necessary. There will be a lot of therapy, workspace counseling, and water cooler (private Zoom more likely) grumbling before both large and small companies are willing to go all in, so our guess is that we will not know the effect of Matter until the 2023 holiday season at the earliest. We hope it works because it is a pain to have 5 or 6 ‘smart’ apps on a phone and even more of a pain to try to find the remotes for those that are still controlled with such archaic devices. Still waiting…
[1] BSR – Birmingham Sound Reproducers – At one time the holder of an 87% share of the record turntable market.
There are already over 4000 Matter certified products under many product type categories, with some easily recognizable by consumers and others a bit more esoteric. A few of the more recognizable ones are ‘smart’ plugs, ‘smart’ thermostats, ‘smart’ switch/dimmer, LED bulbs, Motorized curtain & shades, Home hubs, and smoke alarms, while blood pressure monitors, Energy consumption meters, electronic pill counters, and cellular repeaters are less obvious.
The good part of this is that if the standard is successful, you won’t need to have an app or hub to control each brand of smart devices in your house, as, in theory, they should all be able to be controlled from a common platform of your choice, such as Home Pod, Siri, or Alexa, and as should be expected, the standards are being promoted by Apple, Google (GOOG), and Amazon (AMZN), including 28 ‘promoter’ companies, 268 ‘participants’, and 228 adopters. While the names above have taken the promotional reins for Matter, promoter Samsung Electronics seems to be unusually quiet about the release after recently signing a deal with LG Electronics (066570.KS) and Electrolux (ELUX.SE) to support Samsung’s own “Smart Things’ platform, which opens the question of whether the standard will be adopted across the industry or whether it will be the stepchild of a few CE giants that already have their VA products in your home. Without a full commitment from almost all of the CE majors, smaller device manufacturers will hesitate to abandon their own proprietary systems, and the smart home market will remain in the mire that has kept it from growing or being useful to a broad segment of the population in the past.
We have been using smart home products since 1978 when the first X-10 smart plugs (produced by BSR[1]) appeared in RadioShack (pvt) stores, and rarely have we found any group of consumer products that are less user friendly than home automation products on a general basis, hence our skepticism about how easily a standard like Matter will be adopted across the CE space to ‘revolutionize’ the ‘smart’ industry. Aside from the typical years of meetings to iron out the details of the standards, for which we commend the members, there is the problem of convincing both corporate and developmental executives that many of the projects that they have been developing are no longer necessary. There will be a lot of therapy, workspace counseling, and water cooler (private Zoom more likely) grumbling before both large and small companies are willing to go all in, so our guess is that we will not know the effect of Matter until the 2023 holiday season at the earliest. We hope it works because it is a pain to have 5 or 6 ‘smart’ apps on a phone and even more of a pain to try to find the remotes for those that are still controlled with such archaic devices. Still waiting…
[1] BSR – Birmingham Sound Reproducers – At one time the holder of an 87% share of the record turntable market.
RSS Feed