Matter, Replacing Vendor Apps, to Lead Smart Home Space in 5 Years: ABI

The Matter smart home specification will dominate the smart home landscape within five years, reported ABI Research Wednesday. Though the standard is still “months” from completion, more than 100 million devices that support Matter will ship this year, and more than 5.5 billion by 2030, said ABI. The first spec is to be published late this year, and CES had “key” product announcements from Amazon, Apple Google and Samsung, along with component and service providers NXP and Tuya, said the researcher. But Matter presents new demands in connectivity, interoperability, security and marketing, ABI noted, with some already detailed and others still in development. Matter will “significantly change the way consumers adopt and use their smart home purchases, and it will also reconfigure vendor incentives for smart home engagement,” said analyst Jonathan Collins. It will lead smart home platforms capabilities to onboard and manage smart home devices -- “dispensing with a generation of device vendor apps," Collins said. The spec will provide new incentives for smart home players while also bringing more competition “and a rejigged playing field,” said the analyst. Beyond the immediate impact on smart home devices and consumers, the spec will enable better engagement in smart home from consumers and various industries. "Matter success will help provide drive and deliver a more readily addressable smart home user base that will in turn draw a number of industries looking to smart home to drive efficiencies, new revenue streams, and consumer engagement," Collins said.