Smart home products were one of the big themes of CES 2015, continuing a trend started several years ago.
In 2013, smart lighting systems began to take off — like the Hue from Koninklijke Philips NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG), more commonly known as Philips.
The gloves came off in the smart homes market in 2014 when Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) bought connected thermostat company Nest, and long-time industry leader Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON) released its Lyric system in response.
Gigaom’s Adam Lesser thinks smart locks are in line to be the next big thing in smart home products.
I think he’s right, but based on my own experience with smart locks — I’ve had one installed in my home for nearly two years now — there are still some issues to be addressed before these things go mainstream.
Smart Locks: The Good
Smart homes won’t be truly “smart” until you can secure them, provide access and confirm they’re locked up using your smartphone.
That’s the promise of smart locks. We’ve had generations of door locks that don’t require a key, but using a punch code or key fob isn’t the same as being connected.
Smart locks from market leaders like Weiser and Kwikset, along with a growing number of startups like Haven, August and Goji are hard at work adding your door to the list of smart home products.
Smart locks can do some amazing things. Locking and unlocking a door from anywhere with a smartphone connection is just the start. Depending on the model, you can program a smart lock to detect your smartphone’s proximity then automatically unlock when you pull into your driveway or lock when you leave the house.
Some smart locks also allow you to issue a digital pass that lets the owner of another smartphone — maybe a plumber or a dog walker who needs access to your home — gain temporary entry to your home. You can set specific times, set an expiry for the pass and receive notifications whenever it’s used (great for working parents wondering if their kids are home from school).
These options can be much more attractive solutions than just leaving a key (which can be copied, lost and used at will until returned).
This digital pass technology is something that hotels are interested in, with hopes that it could replace the magnetic stripe cards most use today.
With smart locks, you can have a record of every time your home’s door has been opened or locked, and whose smartphone or digital key was used to do it. Some even track the times they were opened using a physical key.
Smart locks that support the right standards can also be integrated into home security systems. I have one of these, and it’s programmed to lock whenever the alarm is set, ensuring that I won’t forget to lock the door at night.
Smart Locks: The Challenges
The biggest overall challenge smart locks face is the repercussion any malfunction can have on a homeowner or a business.
If your smart thermostat has a hiccup and accidentally heats your house to 90 degrees in the summer, that’s inconvenient but hardly the end of the world. If your smart lights fail to turn on automatically as you approach the front door, you always have your smartphone to light the way.
Smart locks that open when they shouldn’t, leaving a home an easy target for robbery or a hotel room suddenly unsecured against intruders, are much more problematic. That hasn’t proven to be an issue with current generation models, but it remains a public fear.
There are many technical challenges to address. The devices are battery-operated, and finding a middle ground between aesthetics and a big box mounted on the inside of the door is a challenge.
The technician who installed my smart locks pointed out that they simply don’t work properly in many homes. If your deadbolt sticks a bit, you can jiggle it. When battery-powered mechanical smart locks meet resistance — maybe the door frame swelled slightly in humidity — they lack the torque needed and give up with the door left unsecured.
They’ll send you a text saying the door failed to lock, but that’s small consolation if you’re at work.
Not all smart locks work with all smartphones, and that could leave a potential buyer in the bind of needing to change their preferred smartphone, which is unlikely to happen.
However, none of these hurdles — some technical, some a matter of product maturity and some purely marketing — are insurmountable.
Why Google Could Buy a Smart Lock Startup in 2015
Google was on a smart home buying spree in 2014.
It started off the year by buying Nest. Then in June, it acquired Dropcam. Between those two acquisitions, the company now has connected thermostats, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and connected monitoring cameras. Smart locks would be a logical fit that would allow Google to offer pretty much everything needed to automate your home, protect it in your absence and welcome you on arrival.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) chose to take the middleman route, pushing its HomeKit standard as the common denominator for programming smart home products, but so far it’s shown no signs of actually releasing its own hardware.
Google, in contrast, is all in on the hardware inside smart homes. It seems only a matter of time before it snaps up a Goji or August to add smart locks to its hardware offerings.
And even if Google doesn’t pull the trigger this year, with connected thermostats, lights, cameras and even smoke detectors becoming so mainstream they’re stocked in Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), smart locks are well positioned to be the breakout category among smart home products in 2015.
As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
