The oven won't talk to the fridge: 'Smart' homes struggle, Telecom News, ET Telecom
"You can see immediately if you've brushed your teeth properly or if you need to put on sunscreen, for example," says the firm's Baptiste Quiniou.But it can only work to its full capacity with devices developed by Baracoda or its partners.For start-ups and multinationals, making these products work with other brands is becoming crucial. "Sometimes they can do incredibly useful things, but if they're not connected to the wider info system, information dies alone," said analyst Avi Greengart.Big players from Amazon and Apple to Google and Samsung have built entire ecosystems for their devices, often around a voice assistant like Alexa or Siri.Greengart said each company thought its ecosystem would draw in enough people and devices to dominate the others. "What ended up happening is that nobody grew," he said, and the industry "to an extent stagnated".The biggest firms have spent years trying to tackle the "interoperability" problem, finally agreeing a protocol last year called "Matter" that sets a standard for connected home products. "You can think about it as the USB of the smart home," said Mark Benson of Smart Things, Samsung's connected home subsidiary.Just as USB ports allowed all devices to plug into all machines, so the Matter protocol means all connected devices will work with each other, he said, and users will no longer need to download a different app for each device.But Matter will not kill off Alexa, Siri and their friends just yet.Jeff Wang of Accenture said making the devices work with each other was the easier part. "That's maybe one of the last, forgotten, things in the home that can be made smart," said Ian Roberts, a group vice president.
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