Apple or Google: Who will win the smart home war?

The home automation sector is a wide open market that is valued at billions by analysts. But unless the technology becomes more user friendly – and fast – there’s a very real danger that it won’t see the kind of widespread market penetration that businesses are hoping for.

The potential for huge profits has led a large number of companies to enter the race at different levels of the supply chain, yet several years down the line we still don’t have a dominant player on the field.

Both Apple and Google want to be that dominant player. But is there enough room at the top for both of them?

Connected home

The sheer number of home automation products and services on offer has not made life easier for typical consumers.

One of the major problems is that these different products often use different networking protocols, meaning that the ‘connected home’ isn’t interconnected at all, unless you buy all of your devices from the same manufacturer or use a professional installer.

The consumer, and the market in general, would benefit greatly from an industry-wide networking protocol standard that could do the same thing for the smart home that WiFi did for laptops and tablets.

Naturally it would take a tech company with a lot of clout to enforce a standard networking protocol.

They also wouldn’t invest the resources needed to implement one networking protocol unless it benefited their company more than their main competitors.

Industry standards

Apple and Google both have their own networking protocols that they would like to see used as industry standards.

If their networking protocol sees widespread adoption, then their products become more valuable to consumers, their presence in the house will be maximised, and their profits will rise.

If their networking protocol dies out, then their products will quickly become about as useful as a video cassette player.

As it is, it remains to be seen whether the two tech giants will find a middle ground.

— techradar.com