Question: Why Hasn’t Smart Home Become Mainstream and How Likely It Will Become Such?

In the Questions column, we are looking for answers to the complicated questions together with an expert in the design field. We decided to find out why the smart home technology hasn’t become mainstream and how likely it will become such, together with Kirill Ignatyev.     

Kirill Ignatiev Futurologist, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russian Innovations Group of Companies, Coordinator of Research Project “Technical Progress and Economy of Future” #KirillIgnatyev

Home system automation solutions, such as lighting, climate control, electric drives, multimedia, security and home appliances, have been on the market for a relatively long time. So let’s find out why all these technologies haven’t become generally accepted mainstream trend early on.

1 So called smart home is mainly based on the intermediary technologies. In order to connect cameras into a CCTV network, display the image on the tablet and then combine the video surveillance data with other solutions, such systems often use low-current wiring, routers and other hardware. The same applies to the designated equipment installed in order to unite all the lighting appliances into a single system controlled via the homeowner’s gadget. Therefore, the problem of the smart home is that it’s a whole set of equipment. Such equipment must be first purchased, which already creates a certain pricing barrier, then installed, and then the range of devices supplied by different manufacturers and brands must be interconnected to build a single network.

What is about the future? We probably won't need any of those things at all

The end-use devices will become a part of the Internet of Things (IOT). Any state-of-art conventional electric devices and home appliances will have an Internet access as a standard solution. The homeowner will just have to add the newly purchased lamp or refrigerator to the system in a single click (!) via usual mobile application. By buying new equipment, we will expand the functionality of our smart homes. It won’t be a problem to remotely start or switch your washing machine, adjust the heating temperature or view image from any home camera at any time without installing additional software or building additional networks. Intermediate hardware and networks will simply disappear. The costs associated with making home smart will be simply included into conventional device price, which already goes lower and lower with every new generation. Therefore, tomorrow smart lamp or smart fridge will be as expensive or even less expensive as the today similar conventional appliances. Totaled up, there will be no intermediates and no pricing barrier!

2 The modern smart home control interface is already much less complicated than earlier, but it’s still far from perfect. The real breakthrough is expected to happen with the common usage of the voice commands.

Voice interfaces, such as Alice or Siri will take commands to control the equipment in our apartments and homes.

Totaled up, there will be no problems with getting a handle on smart home controls.

3 The market of ready-to-use interior solutions is steadily growing, and it is not limited to IKEA and undecorated user design websites. It also includes offerings of pre-furnished residential spaces. In the ready-to-use residential solutions, the smart home technologies will step down as something attributable to luxury and become available as the state-of-art standard for middle class customers. The developers themselves will spread these technologies much faster than the homebuyers currently do, since the smart home control systems may be easily regarded as the competitive advantage. Totaled up, B2B buyers will drive the growth of smart home popularity.

4 The apartment lease market is also expected to grow as compared to the residential sale. Among the educated youth, who account for the most growth of the residential lease segment, the smart home system will become a normal tenant requirement towards landlord. Totaled up, the old interiors also will be refurnished and reequipped.

5 Not all smart home functions have proved to be useful. Like in the business realm, only those startups that actually help save time or money, offer some qualities or help to optimize the existing process, rocket up and stay the course. Off course, the solution price also must be reasonable. For example, even if you deal with the affluent customers population, it’s virtually impossible to justify the mainstream use of motor-actuated blinds… Totaled up, an important vector in designing new smart home solution is saving of operational and utility costs, as well as the actual customer convenience.

6 Before smart home technologies have gone online, they often serve to connect hardly connectable equipment. The intermediate hardware and communication channels may easily fail, so today the smart home is probably the most unreliable solution in our apartments. Totaled up, the reputation of smart home solutions is currently far from perfect.

My conclusions: Smart home hasn’t become mainstream because of high equipment purchase and installation costs, a need for its unification, complex controls, unobvious benefits for buyers and the narrow B2B market. However, it’s pretty likely that following the Internet of Things technology and corresponding user apps development, the smart home will probably become the standard home furnishing solution.