The recent launch of Apple’s HomeKit app as part of iOS10 and the success of Amazon’s Echo has put the news spotlight back on the smarthome.

Perhaps the entrance of a new giant – Walmart – can accelerate adoption of smarthome technologies which have been the perennial “next big thing.” Walmart intends to play the role of both discounter AND educator – focusing its in-store merchandising strategy on building awareness of practical use cases rather than explaining the complicated sets of competing behind-the scenes technical standards.

Based on Clearworks’ own smarthome research on behalf of clients this back-to-basics education is just what’s needed as few average consumers can point to real examples of smarthome functions beyond alarm systems and digital thermostats.

Chuck Mallory
chuck@clearworks.net

 

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