Smart home hubs might seem like a near-relic these days, but there are still some good reasons to consider making one part of your smart home setup. But, while there are advantages to a smart home hub that can tie everything together, it’s not a perfect solution.

Off-the-shelf smart home devices such as robotic vacuum cleaners and smart lights can support the wellbeing and independence of our aging population. Opportunities to learn digital living skills, as well as affordable and reliable internet services; and smart home devices need to be designed and installed to support older people’s independence, mobility, and memory.

Technically, Nest was working on Thread as far back as 2011 to have a standard protocol for its own line of devices. And here we are in 2021 where the number of Thread devices available for the smart home is much lower than those available with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee or Z-Wave. So why bring this up at all?

If your home is connected, it needs to be protected. IoT devices are the core technology behind the idea of smart homes, and while the latest devices have addressed patches that made their predecessors vulnerable to security breaches, the onus is still on the end user to ensure that their IoT security is up to date.

Smart home technology sales are growing because of the pandemic. The market was already expanding even before the pandemic stuck. A year ago, the possibilities of smart home systems certainly spurred sales, but now it’s a smart, integrated lifestyle that we are after.

Amazon is turning to the wisdom of crowds to determine which voice-enabled smart devices are worth producing. The ecommerce giant recently rolled out a Kickstarter-like program through which customers can submit preorders for any of a handful of gadget prototypes, with the expectation that Amazon will only make the device if it hits a certain sales quota.

The new era of cellular networks has finally arrived. The increased speeds, reduced latency, and ready availability of 5G have huge implications in the growth of the smart home industry for a variety of reasons, but it ultimately boils down to this: 5G makes the smart home smarter.