In April 2016, Comcast released an interesting report, compiled from almost 1,300 US consumers, providing valuable insight into why customers are interested in smart home services, what features they really want and how they plan to use smart home technologies.

The findings are detailed in The Safe & Smart Home: Security in the Smart Home Era.

The big take-away from this report is that what consumers really want in the smart home is services – smart home as a service – not a bunch of connected devices that remotely control various widgets and devices in the home.

So What is Smart Home as a Service and How Does it Work?

First off, there is a big difference between a connected device and a smart device. Devices for the so called automated home have been around for decades. For many years, solutions have existed that allowed a hobbyist or home owner to remotely control the home’s doors, windows, environment, entertainment, etc. You (or your parents or grandparents) may remember the X10 communications protocol technology which was able to wirelessly control a wide range of in-home devices.

Many of today’s so-called smart home devices are basically slightly more sophisticated X10 systems. Instead of, or in addition to a local remote control, these devices can now be controlled over the internet by a smart phone.

In fact, in some ways, these new devices may be even a bit less sophisticated than X10 because a single X10 controller could manage a variety of devices whereas many of today’s smart devices each require their own app running on the smart phone. This means one app to control the home’s security, another for air conditioning and heating, and yet another for controlling the lighting. You get the picture; it is not pretty.

To convert a basic connected device to a smart device requires three additional capabilities. One – it must be able to connect to and communicate with other smart or connected devices in the home. The security system needs to be able to exchange data and commands with the homes environmental controls (i.e. heating and air conditioning), leak detection, lighting, entertainment, lifestyle, etc.

Two – it needs to be intelligent. More than being able to be programmed to perform certain functions at certain times, a smart home solution needs to be able to recognise what is going on in a home, learn what is normal and when something unexpected happens, take action and/or send an alert to the residents, proper authorities, caregivers or family members.

Three – all these functions need to be managed from a single application on a smart phone or any other web connected device such as a tablet. Currently, most connected devices and appliances offer their own app to manage and control operations. However, end users will not want to shuffle through a screen full of various apps in order to find out what is happening in their home.

As many of us already have cluttered up our smart phone screens with pages and pages of apps, it will be painful to add, configure and manage a handful of additional apps that do not share a common user interface or even common commands and logic.