The Smart Home Is Heading to the Great Outdoors

As smart home products and services become more popular, stakeholders are looking for additional ways to get this technology into the hands of consumers, create new use cases, and provide more value. Some companies, like Nest or IOTAS, have started to target new verticals that address customers other than higher income, single family, early adopters by adapting solutions for low income customers, multifamily dwellers, and home builders. Others have begun to look beyond the walls of the home, starting with the great outdoors. As stated in the Wall Street Journal, “With homes chock-full of smart technology, it was only a matter of time until the devices spilled outside.”

Smart home technology is not limited to the inside; there is a growing range of gadgets that can enhance the consumer’s home environment beyond the front door. The past couple of years have seen a surge in Wi-Fi grills, smart smokers, smart (and waterproof) televisions and speaker systems, robotic lawnmowers, connected outdoor lighting—the list goes on. This category becomes especially popular during spring and summer, when entertaining outdoors becomes more appealing. 

Beyond Personalized Ambiance

While personalizing the ambiance of your outdoors and creating the quintessential entertainment setting can be a big draw for this kind of technology, there are several other use cases that drive value for consumers. For example, at CES earlier this year, I got a glimpse into Philips Hue’s latest outdoor lighting solutions, which included the Welcome Flood Light and accompanying sensor. Unlike the Philips Hue Discover Flood Light, which produces white or colored light to enhance the ambiance of your outdoor space, the Welcome Flood Light offers a single shade of white light and is meant to provide increased safety and security. The light can be set to automatically turn on or off when you are near your home (via the app) or when it detects movement, and it can be set to mimic your presence to make it seem like you are at home while you are away.

The great outdoors is just one way in which smart home technology is expanding outside of the home and bringing consumers additional value. The second blog in this series, Smart Home Expands from the House to the Yard to the Car, will discuss how smart home technology is merging with the car.