This Harbor Research white paper from January 2019 reviews the smart-home market and suggests four solutions to unlock its full potential. In particular, network protocols need to be standardized, software interoperability needs to improve, more of an emphasis on localized ecosystem architecture needs to occur, and distributed edge computing needs to increase to improve reliability and user experience satisfaction. A current list of industry participants and case studies is provided. This paper is relevant for companies involved in smart home technology and the residential consumer.
Key words: connected homes and smart homes, energy management, home networking, protocols/standards, research & development, smart grid