Hundreds of smart devices in the home of the future smart

With the continued decline in costs of production and assembly for the addition of communication components and sensors for consumer products, you will run into a scenario where a typical house, in a mature market, it could contain several hundred ” smart object ” by 2022: this is the prediction drawn by analyst firm Gartner market, which looks like the ” smart home ” will be an area of ​​major development in the next decade and will offer many opportunities for innovative business for all those who know how to adapt their products and services to leverage on it.

Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, said: ” We expect a very wide range of home devices to become smart in the sense of acquiring a combination of computation and detection with the ability to communicate, usually via wireless. More sophisticated devices include both sensing functionalities, both remote controls. The price will rarely a limiting factor, since the cost of Internet technology of Thing to enable a consumer object will arrive in the order of the single dollar on the long term. ”

The number of smart objects in an average home will grow slowly for at least ten years from the time that many large household devices are updated and replaced with low frequency. In any case, although a smart home to all the effects will not exist before 2020-2025, smart products for domestic use are already in production and have already emerged the first digital business opportunities by them enabled.

The categories of smart home products are varied, ranging from entertainment, such as gaming consoles and televisions, home appliances such as ovens and washing machines, to the technologies will transport, security and environmental control, up to the health and fitness devices.

Wireless technology is a key fundamental for the smart home, and most of the categories of devices will be connected wirelessly, even if there will be a single technology that will dominate over the others. All wireless technologies (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G / LTE and various proprietary solutions) will be located in the smart home and will likely proliferation of gateways and adapters to connect between their standards and protocols.

Many wireless devices in the home will be portable and will not need the support to the mains, then the battery manufacturers will have the opportunity to profit from this scenario, as well as organizations involved in the development of technologies of power and recharge and new recruits of wireless charging.

According to Gartner, the scenario of the dwelling intelligent will open up new opportunities in all three levels of the concept of digital business: improvement of existing business processes, new business models capable of revolutionizing existing markets and interception of new currents of business. Some examples of new business opportunities catalyzed by the smart home:

• New products and features: improving usability by adding functionality using gesture or voice control, up to an extension of the useful life of the product.
• Opportunities into revenue and savings: various examples ranging from the automatic supply of consumables to the domestic products (coffee capsules, water filters, vacuum cleaner bags) intercept purchase decisions and update.
• New business models: it can deal with new combinations of products and services that may threaten the traditional reality. A service provider may integrate information from low cost sensors and cross them with those of other smart devices to create a home security system cloud-based able to represent a competitive alternative to conventional anti-theft systems and alarm.
• Initiatives and social administration: some governments will see the growth of domestic technologies as a way to influence the behavior of consumers or improve the delivery of services to citizens. Sensors and smart devices could also be a way to apply a differentiated taxation: the water used for washing operations, for example : be heavily taxed less than water for watering the garden.

Despite the many opportunities offered by the smart home, it is still a vision that is facing many challenges, not least the fact that the consumer may need to be convinced of its real value. A number of elements of the concept of smart home, such as the remote control functionality related to home automation, are already available for years, but have been a lukewarm success outside user more technologically advanced, since few consumers fail to see in advance the value of these products. The smart devices will also be much more complex than their predecessors, but to be successful designers will be able to achieve something that is simple, understandable and usable by ordinary users, as well as finding a way to create value that goes beyond the technological novelty.

Consumers will accrue also a serious concern related to the use of sensitive data, security and privacy. The digital business models rely heavily on the fact that additional information about the smart devices collected with respect to more traditional counterparts. Inappropriate use of this information could generate a negative response from the audience: business models that analyze data, especially those that combine information collected from various sources, must pay great attention to issues such as informed consent from the public and data security, and developers should consider a third-party analysis on the use of user information.

The possible lack of interoperability and standards could also hinder the adoption of smart devices. Currently, the domain of smart home is a mess confused that includes various network technologies and different protocols, many of which are proprietary and are not able to operate between them. A part of interoperability initiatives are underway, but it is likely that the domain technically remains fragmented until 2020, despite the emergence of some of the islands of interoperability.

” The smart home devices require connectivity. Some will require highly reliable since it will perform vital functions such as the monitoring of health conditions, and then the houses will need reliable connections to the Internet and high speed. Lack of these features will require many devices to operate, in the best case, in limited mode. If also the houses become heavily dependent on a good connectivity as it happens for the business reality, they will need for redundant systems ” concluded Jones.