Smart home today looks a lot like the world of kitchen gadgets a few generations ago - and so does machine learning. We have a bunch of cheap commodity components (DC motors! Cameras! Wifi chips! Voice recognition!) and we’re trying to work out how to bolt them together into things that makes sense. There are lots of experiments - some things will be the toasters or benders of the future, and some will be the electric can-opener.
Read MoreAmazon’s Alexa has been a huge, impressive and unexpected achievement. Amazon created a category from scratch and left both the AI leader Google and the device leader Apple scrambling in its wake. It’s now sold 100m units. So far, though, this success is pretty contingent - we do still have to ask what Amazon actually gains from this. What do consumers do with these devices that helps Amazon? What fundamental strategic benefit does it get? Amazon has put an end-point into tens of millions of homes - what does it do with it?
Read MoreHow many smart things will we have in our homes? What will make sense? How much room is there here for startups? Will all these devices be connected to Alexa, and if they are, will it matter?
Read More'Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful'
Read MoreA gold smart watch is an interesting experiment, but it’s also marketing and positioning - a way to shift perception away from the ‘nerd wart’ image of wearable tech and turn it into a lifestyle product. Whether people buy it is less important than whether it stops people calling these ‘gadgets’
Read MoreThe smartphone supply chain is driving an explosion of innovation in the connected home. How does that split between software and commodity?
Read MoreHow should we think about smart watches? What happens to a tech product when delight is more important than specifications? Why would you want one?
Read MoreMy grandfather could probably have told you how many electric motors he owned. There was one in the car, one in the fridge, one in his drill and so on. My father, when I was a child, might have struggled to list all the motors he owned (how many, exactly, are in a car?) but could have told you how many devices were in the house that had a chip in.
Today, I have no idea how many devices I own with a chip, but I could tell you how many have a network connection. And I doubt my children will know that, in their turn.
Read More