Smart homes compete for control

A recent batch of CES preheating reports mentioned that smart home products will be the theme of the show. But for so many products, if you have to install an app on your mobile phone, I dare to ensure that the massive amount of notification information will be annoying.

However, many manufacturers have begun to consider how to turn themselves into smart home control centers. From the Wall Street Journal's point of view, smart home winners will be those who have the most data.

In addition to focusing on the long-term, smart home products have combined deep impulses. Whether it's pairing Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Zigbee, it's troublesome for the user, the power pressure caused by the momentary networking of the product, the storage pressure caused by the moment of recording data, and the pressure to integrate more sensors to more easily perceive the user's pressure.

In addition, due to the complexity of the home environment and the need for specificity, it is difficult to produce integrated products like smart phones in a short time. Therefore, the smart home market is certainly not enough to rely on a single product to fight the world.

However, in the cluttered smart home market, how does the company and the company cooperate with each other and how do the products and products link up?

As I mentioned in my previous "2015 Google, to do list", Nest is essentially Google's smart home sector. It actively bought smart home companies with a high unit shipment (Dropcam, etc.) last year, and It also cooperated with the smart home products with a single product shipment (Philips Hue) and also opened the API. In addition, in July last year, Nest also took the lead to advance the new Internet of Things protocol Thread with Samsung and ARM.

Just like the service experience created by Nest, the core of Nest is algorithms and automation. It hopes to allow users to stop worrying about the product. After learning the machine for a while, the device can automatically determine what it should do.

Belkin previously launched the WeMo smart home product line, which is already very rich in categories: sockets, switches, light bulbs, cameras, sensors for doors and windows, and many heating machines and air purifiers that interact with WeMo products. Coffee machine, rice cooker and so on. In addition to using WeMo's app to connect to other devices, it has long supported IFTTT (Internet Adhesives, Automated Scripting Services, which can be found here). The user creates scripts for the hardware supported by WeMo on IFTTT to let the machine Automatically perform certain tasks if you need it.

Obviously, IFTTT requires manual intervention compared to Nest. The advantage of this method is that it gives the user more control and allows the user to create an automated task that meets their needs. Therefore, if the performance of the device is unsatisfactory, the user can adjust it.

In China, the open cooperation between new open body weight scales, Here and Bong, is also worth noting. Here's equipped with an LED dot matrix display that can display information from other devices, and not only that. It is a static device in the home. It can help temporarily store data from other devices and then help upload the data to the corresponding server via Wi-Fi.

In other words, Here changed his identity as a data transmission center and exhibition center. Regardless of whether or not the equipment is going to be sold in the future, the ideas and positioning of product design are very interesting compared to Nest and Belkin. Of course, further, I hope that Here and more smart homes, as well as the domestic wearable device team can join together to join an agreement or create an agreement to make smart home communications in the room more convenient.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Samsung intends to announce its smart home plan at CES. Since it acquired SmartThings, it has finally released substantive content.

In addition, based on the news we received, Apple, which has never participated in CES, discussed a lot about HomeKit at the MFi Summit in November last year. It is expected that HomeKit-related devices will be strongly promoted in 2015.

Think about it. If every smart home product is open, it wants to be a remote control for others. God, the scale of this competition is not really big.