If you’re like me and believe smart home technology is already amazingly innovative, wait until you hear what a panel of experts say the future will hold. I attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to check out what tomorrow’s connected home may look like. I found a panel of manufactures and programmers who discussed today’s most widely used smart home systems, products and apps and explored how one day they could all work together to make one smart ecosystem for you and your home.
The panelist agreed that most smart home products are only used for the most obvious reason, however most are built with additional features that users discovers over a period of time. For example, Brian Pope, CMO of Samsung SmartThings discussed how some Samsung TVs already include built in hubs that can connect directly to your wireless router and essentially connect all smart devices within your home. Pope stated “More consumers will engage as we lower key adoption bearers such as cost and complexity. Making the hub part of our existing appliances such as refrigerators and TVs is critical step in allowing consumers to connect their smart home.”
Many panelists believed that cutting the cord will allow many more consumers to get involved. Arthur Orduna, Chief Innovation Officer of ADT told us “With wireless connectivity, gone are the days of breaking up walls to rewire hard lines throughout the home. Wireless technology will save time, cost and aggravation.” When asked about the longevity of physical sensors throughout the home, most of the speakers believed they were here to stay, but saw an opportunity to design them as accents to existing décor or make them completely disappear from view.
Another benefit recently realized by smart home gadget owners is that their existing products may already be connected together. Take for example Amazon’s Echo. Thanks to open APIs by many smart home gadgets, Echo can now control lighting, thermostats, binds and much more by using simple voice commands. Pope went on to say “Echo’s voice command module “Alexa” offers one of the most realistic user experiences helping it seem more like a friend in the home vs. a piece of technology.”
The panelist also explored how we will interact with our gadgets in the future. All agreed there will not be a single solution, but it will be based on how each consumer prefers to interact with their technology. All agreed that smartphone, voice commands and gestures will lead the way in the next few years. Looking into the not too distant future, we will see more options for controlling our homes from outside of their walls. This includes integrating smart home controls and messages within the dashboard of your cars as well as refrigerators sending a grocery list to your super market before you even get there.
All of this sounds a bit like science fiction, but we found it is already a huge part of lives. According to the 2015 Coldwell Banker® Smart-Home Marketplace Survey, almost half (45 percent) of all Americans either own smart home technology or plan to invest in it in 2016. The survey also showed that it’s not just the tech-savvy who are on board with the smart home. Of people who either have smart home technology or plan to buy it in 2016, more than one in three (36 percent) say they don’t consider themselves early adopters of technology.
If you’re interested in finding a smart home of your own, we have plenty of options that you may want to explore at coldwellbanker.com or you can join the smart home conversation on Twitter using the #CESCB.
