Matter showcases early view of brand-neutral connected homes

Industry consortium Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has showcased the very first generation of Matter — arguably one of the most prominent efforts till date to unify the connected smart home ecosystem. At an event in Amsterdam on November 4, the cross-industry collaboration showcased an early draft of the unified platform that could one day reduce the need for users to buy smart home products belonging to one platform (and in turn, one brand) only. Such a platform could potentially boost a fledgling smart home industry, which remains nascent in India.

At its event, CSA claimed that over 190 smart home devices have been certified by Matter, and its software development kit (SDK) — the toolkit used to build a product’s firmware — has been 2,500 times. Each download of a platform’s SDK translates to a potential adoption of the standard. According to a report on the matter, Amazon said at the conference that it will have 17 Alexa-powered smart home products that are compatible with Matter, and the remaining devices in its ecosystem would be compatible with the standard by “early 2023”.

Other brands, such as Samsung’s SmartThings ecosystem, also showcased smart devices that are cross-compatible with other industry standards. On October 12, at a developer conference in Korea, the electronics conglomerate announced a partnership with Google to accelerate cross-compatible smart things product development — using the Matter standard.

In May this year, Michele Turner, senior director of Google Home Ecosystem, said in a blog post that Matter would enable “quick and consistent” interfaces that enable setting up of smart home products. The standard will be compatible with Google’s ‘Fast Pair’ feature on Android, and developers will not need to create multiple versions of a smart device’s firmware to make it work across ecosystems. In simpler terms, once built, Matter would help users set-up an Alexa-powered Amazon smart streaming platform and a Google Assistant-powered smart lighting unit from one app.

To be sure, the platform is being developed in collaboration between multiple big tech and prominent electrical and electronics brands — the list of members noted by the CSA includes Amazon, Apple, Google, Haier, Ikea, Legrand, LG, NXP Semiconductors, Oppo, Samsung, Schneider Electric and Texas Instruments, among others.

This collaboration could help smartphones work as interoperable — and not be restricted to Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri or Google’s Assistant-powered smart home ecosystem devices. Eventually, once fully developed and integrated with multiple smart home and intelligent assistant platforms, Matter will help users integrate all their smart home devices under one umbrella — and not require an individual app for every brand.

Market reports have already hinted at the massive business opportunity that this represents. A report by industry researcher Statista in July this year said that India’s connected, smart home industry, estimated to be worth around $4.8 billion this year, may grow at an annual growth rate of 13.5% to reach $8.1 billion by end-2026.

By market volumes, smart appliances and devices, such as connected kitchen appliances and smart assistant-powered televisions, would continue to account for nearly half of India’s smart home market. This, in turn, may boost the total number of active households using smart home products to 5.4 crore houses in the country, by end-2026.