Lately, the term IoT (Internet of Things) and smart home automation have been creating a buzz in the IT industry. Smart homes occupied with connected products have made our daily lives better, simpler, and comfortable. Now imagine that you are heading home on a super hot sunny day.
You usually after going home, you have to turn your conditioner and wait until the room or house to get cool. But what if you can turn your air conditioner on on your way home by simply using your smartphone. How nice would it be. Right?
Or imagine that you are making dinner and you ask Alexa to read the news so that you can concentrate on your cooking. There are obviously no limitations for smart home systems and of course, the home automation seems to be in the limelight now and in the future.
Smart Home Devices– The New Wave of the Future
The global smart home market is expected to reach an estimate of nearly 40 billion dollars by the year 2020. This includes all smart home appliances from dryers and refrigerators to air conditioners, smart home security and safety devices like close circuit cameras and alarm systems, and smart home energy appliances such as thermostats.
Of course, the very first advantage of having smart home systems is ease and convenience, since more connected devices can manage more operations and lets us handle other things. Not only time, IoT smart home devices can also help in reducing costs and energy. In the above-mentioned instance, you would be having a cool home by the time you reach your home and manage on and off with your smartphone device which ultimately will reduce energy consumption.
But the downside of the IoT smart devices is that they cost a hell of a lot of money when compared to other non-connected devices, so customers would definitely feel the pinch when they first think about the IoT devices. Let’s take connected LED bulbs. They cost around $12-15 on an average and non-connected LED bulbs cost $8-10. Nevertheless, the cost of these two connected bulbs has been reduced in the past couple of years, so we can see the prices of smart home devices start declining in the future and make them cost-effective to the average consumer.
Biggest Challenge
As with any new technology, IoT is also becoming pretty confusing with increasing debates around the world. Currently, the biggest issue that IoT facing is facing is the lack of regular standards.
However, highly sophisticated and super connected data centers are increasingly becoming popular around the globe to cope with the increased data demand from new and evolving technologies such as IoT.
The smart home market will reach a whole new level if IoT devices become cost-effective and the common man will understand the advantages of these connected devices. And from smart homes, the next big thing in IoT is smart cities and that would take IoT to the next level. For now, smart homes are only one part of the daily lives that the IoT will revolutionize in the coming years.
