Just How Smart Will Our Homes Become?

According to research firm IHS 1 million smart home appliances shipped globally in 2014 but that’s nothing compared to the predicted shipping of 700 million appliances in 2020.

With a compound annual grow rate of 134% over the next five years the small market of home appliances is set to get a whole lot bigger. By 2020 the figure will have grown to some 223 million but when small appliance like coffee machines and toothbrushes are included total would more than triple to 700 million.

The previous trend of “dumb” cheap devices that only had one use will be phased out as they are replaced by ever more comply and integrated “smart” alternatives that can meet communicate with each other to serve multiple needs for the consumer.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/emerson/2015/07/07/the-simple-truth-about-smart-home-technology/

Devices such as ovens will be able to communicate with your fridge and the internet to determine what food you have available and select suitable recipes for your dinner. This isn’t as farfetched as it appears, in fact several large companies have been working towards greater integration for a while now and big players like LG and Samsung are vying for first mover advantage in a bid to scoop up a significant proportion of this new market.

Both Apple and Google already have home-automation platforms and Samsung announced in May that they are working on new processors for this rapidly developing market. Intel and IBM are also getting in on the act and it will be interesting to see which of these will become the dominant player over the next few years. By 2018 the researchers at HIS expect there will be just a couple of connectivity platforms and a handful of appliance manufactures dominating the market so even though the market isn’t that big yet it’s key to get in there first.

With smart cars and smart homes all talking to each other there is certainly a lot to look forward to. Why not leave us a comment on who you thin will win out or what developments excite you the most and while your at it checkout Chinavasion for some smart home products that are available now. You can read more about smart homes here