What is a Smart Home?

A broad term continues to get broader.

The influx of cheap knock-off hardware is currently shaking up many industries including appliances and electronics. This means companies such as Google and Samsung are increasingly aware that the biggest slice of the pie will be coming from software, if it isn’t for them already. We want to take it back a few steps and re-introduce the topic. First of all, what is a smart home?

Imagine your energy costs such as heating and cooling, controlled by your phone. You may already be using something like this. How about your pool? Control all home appliances from a phone for tablet – your coffee machine should be up and in action before you! Can you literally schedule bath time for the kids? Maybe, just maybe, they’d be quick to get to it if they keep missing the boat!  

There’s a pattern emerging here: control. Smart tech allows us to better easily control the environment in our home. However, one thing to remember with smart tech: it tracks data. That means it can constantly obtain information on performance, which means manufacturers can detect faults before you. Imagine every product you buy continually improving based on real time information it receives during its daily use? The chair you just sat on may be more comfortable tomorrow, once it knows what you like.

Eventually everything will be tracked by data, because its information will drive sales. The toothbrush of 2025 monitors your performance and helps you improve on brush strokes; informs of weak bristles, perhaps even of a growing cavity or unnoticed dental concerns.

Smart technology is more than a product it’s an entire mindset, and from it, a whole range of smart products will emerge in the home as price continues to drop and value continues to increase. Some will benefit from saving money; some will save time. We can be certain of one thing though: inevitably, I will buy.