PODCAST: APPLE EMBRACES IOT AND SMARTTHINGS SHAKES THINGS UP

Interviewed by Stacey Higginbotham for a podcast about the current state of smart connected products, a proactive and bold shift in product strategy coming soon for SmartThings, and a perspective on how companies will compete in the future of smart home experiences.

A macro-economic movement:

Internet of Things is not a technology wave – it’s a macro-economic movement that represents new ways that people are interacting with their environments, their devices, data, and each other. In the end, people don’t just want technology for the sake of technology. They want their lives to be better.

The next generation of the smart home:

Home automation market is primed for growth. The price of sensors has dropped considerably and a significant percentage of households are now exposed to smart home technology. We couldn’t say that a few years ago.

Use cases are moving beyond monitoring/control to services/experiences. Connecting devices to the Internet is table stakes. Being able to remotely monitor and control devices and environments is something that consumers are coming to expect as basic building blocks of their smart home. But users are now looking beyond simple monitoring and control towards applications that matter to them and make their lives better. For example: reduce energy usage, better safety and security, and lifestyle applications such as cooking and caring for elders, family members, and pets.

Industry standardization efforts are gaining momentum, targeted at solving the #1 problem holding IoT back from mass adoption: complexity of the setup and use of devices, and the interoperability of those devices between other platforms and brands.