We’re only a few weeks into January and there has already been a raft of announcements and developments from the smart home market.
Market Boom
Growth in the smart home sector is showing no sign of slowing down. According to the latest research from reportfinder.com, the global smart home appliances market is expected to reach US$73.1 Billion by 2026. Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 12% CAGR and the rest of the European market is anticipated to reach US$6.1 Billion by the end of 2026.
Tado, a German smart energy start up, has just announced its intention to list publicly via SPAC with a valuation of €450 million.
It Was Only a Matter of Time
The realisation of the Matter project is expected later this year and the new platform will resolve a number of consumer pain points such as rival ecosystem compatibility. 170 brands have signed up to Matter including Samsung, Google and Apple.
New Products and New Ideas
With an anticipated boom in the smart home category, and Matter expected later this year, there were a good number of new smart home products launched at the CES show with devices announced by brands including Eufy, Arlo, Wemo and Kidde.
There have also been some noteworthy innovations this month including Netgear’s deal with crypto currency wallet Metamask. Users can now showcase their NFTs on the Netgear Meural digital photoframe or canvas. The Meural devices support both images and videos (20MB and 200MB max respectively).
MyShield is marketed as the world’s first IoT 5G all-in-one stand alone intruder prevention solution. The smart security device from essence was awarded Honoree status in the CES 2022 Innovation Awards. What stands out is the device’s facility to release smoke when an intruder is detected.
The Robots Are Coming
There are no confirmed release dates for many of the home robotic innovations that came to light in 2021 but a number of trial periods could be concluded sooner rather than later. Amazon Astro sent out some test robots to a select number of households in the US last December. Ring’s Always Home security camera launched a pilot programme in September last year, and ElliQ, a home robot companion for senior citizens, has been extensively tested in 2021, and has scheduled a live online demo for the end of this month.