Matter Converging the Connected Home

Written by Chris D’Alessandro, executive director, client engagement, VMLY&R

This CES, the word of the smart home area was ‘Matter.’ The unifying protocol that insures that devices are interoperable with other devices and smart home systems.  It appeared to be a way for all the companies to say “we are in on this party”.

In 2005, the beginning of the smart home evolution, when consumers wanted to control a smart object (light or switch) with a button they would have to get a RaspberryPi, a button, learn to code a little pearl and get familiar with IFTTT; today you buy a Flic, plug it in configure the app and you are done. 

The 2023 CES smart home floor is the easy button for the average consumer, no more need to “hack the system”. Amazon’s booth/room really told a story as they created ‘smart rooms” inside their own private hall, each area had its own room, a kitchen, bedroom and even a bathroom.  

Predominately the themes were iterations of current ideas, however they did have a few new entrants, a butler esq robot and a smart shower, Orbital, that looked a lot like generation 1 Nest.  Kohler also joined the smart bathroom space and had huge displays with their intelligent showers, faucets and toilets.

There was also a concentration on ways to control your home with control panels. Most were basic panels and variations of panels that you use an accompanying app to control, however Mui took a different, zen approach to control and created a wood surface panel to control your home and do it in a calming stylish manor.

This article is part of a series that recaps CES 2023. To view other, please visit our CES 2023 Overview and Recap page.