Hello beloved Vera community…
I spent the week at CES and thought I’d share some experiences and conversations I had with various companies, including our ‘uncle’ Lew Brown.
Seeing what was happening was both encouraging and disappointing at the same time. I spoke with most/all of the major players at CES in the Smart Home category… including Vera, Lowes, Securifi, Honeywell, Echostar/Sage, Belkin Wemo, Fibaro, Nexia, Pella, Philio, Flex, iControl, Insteon, and MANY more.
A few things became very clear, very fast…
- There is such a low barrier to entry that EVERYONE is getting into home automation at some level.
- Most companies are focusing on “control” plus very basic conditional (if/then) “automation” - not complex/branching automation as more of the power users here do.
- Companies that are not traditional HA are doing well, and better, than some that have been in the game for a while. Pella is a good example… thier door and window sensors are 3x smaller than all other sensors, including traditional alarm versions. The custom-install door sensor also has more features: open/closed/locked/unlocked - all others only tell you open/closed. Very impressive, and I’m not impressed easily.
Talking with Lew Brown…
Lew made it very clear: Vera is aiming at the lowest-common-denominator of users. I explained that this is what ‘almost’ everyone else is also doing and they are doing it better. This is why SmartThings and Nest were VERY quickly acquired by large companies. And, if you look at most of the other systems, they are drag-n-drop very simple UIs that create scenes/macros/whatever they call them in a few easy steps.
I explained my thoughts that Vera is being crushed from above and below… the new comers are not hampered by legacy (poor) code or ways of doing things. The companies aiming at the same user base does everything those users want, much better than Vera. The companies, like Fibaro, who can do more complex automation like Vera can, do it better that Vera in MANY ways. The Fibaro system is much more impressive, in every way, than Vera.
Talking with Honeywell, Fibaro, Pella, and others…
These companies get it. They are starting small and quickly ramping up on the complexity and thinking around how to make Home automation seamlessly integrate into everyone’s lives. Nest is the perfect example of this thinking.
I had in-depth discussions with the lead designer and lead engineer at Honeywell. If they stick on the path they are on, they will be a force for good in our goal to make automation mainstream. They are thinking deeply about how to take HA beyond smartphone control and simple conditional logic
In my opinion, Fibaro is the most impressive out of the gate for a power-user or SMB home automation business. They have a very polished system and some unique devices. I see them as the “I want a high-end system on a reasonable budget” system.
My conclusions…
It is clear to me the field is widening exponentially with easy access to both Z-Wave and Zigbee devices. Most are aiming at the same basic goal of targeting the lowest-common-denominator. The winner in this space will likely be new-comer start-ups (Piper/iControl, etc) and the largest incumbents (Samsung, Belkin, Google, Honeywell, etc). The next category will be the power-users and custom installers - the winner here is less easy to determine. I feel Fibaro is a strong leader and there are a few others very small new-entries into the space that could come up quickly if they get recognition. And even one big boy on the block who has the mental horsepower and financial backing, Honeywell. If the Control4’s of the world decided to step up (down really) they could easily own the mid-tier space.
Where does this leave Vera… most of you already know my answer to that, I’ll let you come to your own conclusion.