Matter-Certified Products to Start Rolling Out Next Month, Says CSA

Now that the Matter smart home connectivity specification has been released, the Matter logo will start appearing on product packaging and on e-commerce stores as soon as manufacturers secure certification for their Matter-enabled devices, Michelle Mindala-Freeman, Connectivity Standards Alliance global marketing head, emailed Consumer Electronics Daily last week, responding to questions after the long-awaited release of Matter 1.0 this month (see 2210040055).

The Matter logo is designed to convey four messages, Mindala-Freeman said: simplicity in purchase, use and setup; interoperability among certified products; reliability with “consistent and responsive local connectivity”; and security via validation and authentication.

A “large group” of companies will begin submitting devices for certification this month, and CSA expects the first products to hit shelves in November; Matter-ready products already in market will follow the same timeline with firmware updates expected to start next month, running into next year, Mindala-Freeman said.

Matter-certified smart home products should appear by Black Friday and early December for the holiday shopping season, Parks Associates analyst Chris White told us, pegging the target consumer for the initial Matter market as “upper middle class." Parks research shows 68% of internet households are more likely to buy a smart home product with a mark that assures compatibility with other products, White said. CSA needs to “connect the dots" for consumers to understand "what this little triangle means” and the products carrying the logo, he said.

The concept of interoperability could also have the opposite effect, White said, saying some consumers may not want to buy into the idea of a global IoT standard, preferring instead to remain within a “walled garden” ecosystem that gives them a sense of security and privacy. “It will be interesting to watch to see how brand loyalty plays into this,” he said.

Once Matter reaches the home, Parks expects it to provide a “major benefit” for users, White said. “If this works the way they’re saying,” he said, consumers will benefit from an easy installation and connection process that crosses categories and brands. It could also allow customers who wanted to add a smart device category not previously available for their ecosystem to get new functionality, he said. “Maybe you had all the basics, but you were looking to add a smart sprinkler system,” he said: "Maybe this makes it possible.”

Manufacturers have already started creating their own partnerships within the broader Matter universe. Samsung and Google previewed future possibilities of smart home interoperability between their ecosystems last week, saying Samsung Galaxy phone and tablet users will be able to "easily onboard" Matter-compatible devices to both the SmartThings and Google Home worlds.

“When users go into the SmartThings app, they will be made aware of Matter devices that have been set up with Google Home and will be given a choice to easily onboard those devices to SmartThings, and vice-versa,” the companies said. Whether users want to control their smart home on their SmartThings app or a Google Nest Hub, “the devices will always be there,” they said: “Users won’t have to manually add each of their devices one at a time or worry about which ecosystem their device has been set up on first.”

The Matter spec is “striking new ground” with security policies and processes using the “blockchain-like” Distributed Compliance Ledger (DCL), Jon Harros, CSA director-certification and testing programs, told us, calling the DCL “a trusted source” of information about device provenance, certification status, and important setup and operation parameters. The ledger provides “secure, independently verifiable information around IoT devices, which helps the Alliance and our members have a centralized, secure, tamper-proof, imputable framework” for IoT devices, he said.

StrongKey announced Thursday its Product Attestation Authority (PAA) was approved for production use by CSA for attesting IoT devices. Chris LaPre, CSA head-technology, called Device Attestation Certificates (DACs) -- industry-standard digital certificates for Matter-approved devices -- “the linchpin to ensuring device authentication is done quickly and securely in the background as new devices enter a network.”

Publishing StrongKey’s PAA to the alliance’s DCL gives smart-home device makers a choice of digital certificate solutions to enable their products to interoperate securely with other Matter-certified products and solutions, StrongKey said. Matter 1.0 requires the use of DACs in the specification, ensuring “the authenticity and integrity of IoT devices are attested cryptographically before they may join, and operate within, smart-home networks,” the company said. That gives consumers worldwide “high levels of security without the need to verify every connection of every IoT device in their home” because Matter defines each step of the process before the IoT device is validated and accepted, it said.

Despite broad coverage of Matter in tech press circles, mainstream consumer awareness is low, and brand marketing is scant. Our recent Twitter search for Matter brought up a software reader app called Matter, then several Black Lives Matter listings. Mindala-Freeman said CSA, along with the 280 companies that are a part of Matter, will be working collectively “to broaden the reach of the Matter brand.”

The alliance is engaging with media, analysts and influencers, and expects interaction “to increase as more Matter products come to market and members directly market Matter’s interoperability,” Mindala-Freeman said. CSA is also working to educate and inform retailers on Matter and its benefits to retailers, sellers and its “value to consumers,” she said.

All eight test houses and labs for Matter certification are operational, Harros told us; many are also authorized to perform Zigbee testing. Across the eight Matter test labs are 16 worldwide locations authorized to perform Matter testing, and each test lab may also have the ability to certify for either Wi-Fi or Thread, Harros said. Manufacturers developing Matter-enabled products can do pretesting based on the alliance test specs using test harnesses and tools CSA provides to members, then take products to one of the authorized test lab locations, Harros said. That can substantially speed the testing process -- and likely reduce costs -- at authorized test labs, he said.

Labs perform tests against the standard and spec being implemented, and once a product passes the tests, results and additional device information are submitted to CSA for an assessment, before a request for certification, Harros said. Certification -- including validation of test results, registering of devices and the rights to use alliance brands and logos -- is granted “only by the alliance,” he said.

Once a smart home device is certified, the manufacturer can use the Matter logo, and the product will be registered and listed on the CSA website. The testing process varies based on “manufacturer readiness,” Harros said, but the process at the alliance can take “as little as a few days.” The fee structure for testing is determined by test labs; certification fees vary depending on type of certification, he said.

Fees could add up if every SKU in a manufacturer’s lineup has to be certified, Parks' White noted. A smart lock maker, for instance, could have multiple SKUs with the same core technology but with a few feature or design differences, he said. Harros said each product in a manufacturer's Matter product line must be certified independently to use the alliance brands and to be registered and listed on the website, but he added, “There are programs to address product variants and product families in more cost-effective ways.”