Industry Predictions for Smart Homes
Omer Cheema, Head of IoT Wi-Fi Business Unit at Renesas Electronics

  • Smart homes will become context aware. Earlier iterations of smart homes were based on simple rules (e.g., if temp is above 25C, turn on the AC). We see a long-term trend where new smart homes will actually understand the full context of environments. For example, they will be able to recognize that people are in the room, understand their needs and adjust the environment according to the specific tastes and needs of the individual. As we head into 2022, this trend of truly smart context-aware smart homes will gain further momentum. We expect to see an explosion of context-aware products that will allow home to become truly smart.
  • Smart homes will become easier to install. When you buy a phone or laptop today, it simply works as soon as you unbox it. In order to see the broader adoption of smart homes, we need a similar level of “out of box” experience. More and more IoT device makers are building products that are easy to install and setup. As Wi-Fi is a ubiquitous technology, we believe Wi-Fi based products can enable an “out of box” experience that Zigbee/Z-wave-based IoT products don’t offer. Today’s consumers are just looking for low cost, plug and play setup of their smart homes. Thanks to advances in Wi-Fi technology, next year we’ll start to see a more simplified smart home set up, enabling greater adoption of smart homes overall.
  • Smart homes will become more secure. The right to privacy is a key aspect of the universal declaration of human rights. Home, by definition, is the center of our private lives. If IoT devices aren’t secure, it will compromise not only our privacy but also our security and safety. As such, I predict that in 2022, we’ll see a rise in security measures and protocols to ensure that all connected IoT devices are designed with security top of mind. Initiatives around security such as PSA will gain momentum. Security will become a “built in” feature for smart home products instead of being a “bolted on” addition. At Renesas, we are committed to building products that are designed from scratch while keeping security in mind.   

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