Home Automation: The Alliance of Appliance & Cell Phone Makers

Less than a week ago I installed a Wi-Fi connected thermostat,

since then I noticed that two cell phone makers are making concerted efforts to take part in the connected home market.

The first news report, BusinessWeek (http://buswk.co/1z1Ek51 ) reports that Samsung, has a mission ‘to bring your home to your connected life’ and is trying to make up falling mobile profit by showing off ‘unprecedented levels of remote control’ along with moving 500 engineers from the mobile phone division to Internet-connected devices. Internet-connected devices like refrigerators, stoves, and microwaves, which Samsung manufactures.

Xiaomi doesn’t want to build appliances (http://onforb.es/1GWbEyu) instead they will invest in an ecosystem. This week Xiaomi bought a small stake in Midea (http://on.wsj.com/13h7B2F), which makes rice cookers, air conditioners, and washing machines. Xiaomi’s first interconnected product is an air purifier on sale this week in the People’s Republic.

The third participant to the ecosystem will become service providers providing the internet connection at the home.  I’ve seen Home Security and Automation – garage doors & door locks – as part of service provider packages, but no integration with appliance yet.