The smart home market will make up over 13 percent of 815 million Bluetooth device shipments by 2024, up from 250 million units last year, said ABI Research. Growth in smart lighting, voice-enabled front-end products, door locks, smart appliances and sensors will be one of Bluetooth’s largest market opportunities over the next five years, said the researcher in a Wednesday email. Bluetooth’s low power consumption, audio capabilities, widespread presence in mobile devices, and mesh networking support position it well for a range of device types, said analyst Andrew Zignani. Bluetooth will benefit from smart home growth along with Wi-Fi, 802.15.4 and Z-Wave, said Zignani, noting different device types have their own throughput, power, range and topology requirements. Smart lighting device shipments will exceed 300 million units by 2024, with 60 percent based on 802.15.4 technology, 30 percent on Bluetooth, and 8 percent Wi-Fi, he said. Wi-Fi will be “nearly ubiquitous in smart appliances alongside Bluetooth, while 802.15.4 and Z-Wave will gain traction in low power sensor devices,” said the analyst. Beyond smart home, IoT opportunities for Bluetooth include beacons, trackers, smartwatches and fitness trackers, healthcare devices, and commercial building automation and lighting, Zignani said.

Universal Electronics is adding capabilities and support across home entertainment and smart home devices via its nevo.ai virtual assistant services available in smart TVs, set-top boxes and home gateways, it said at CES in Las Vegas. Nevo.ai is an integrated white-label virtual assistant in Universal’s Nevo Butler entertainment and smart home hub, with built-in mics for far-field voice control. Nevo.ai includes a new graphical interface that provides a “friendly multi-modal experience” when integrated on devices, UEI said. QuickSet 5.0, with native support for Zigbee 3.0, includes advancements blending entertainment and smart home with built-in support for IoT device management, dashboards and analytics. Nevo.ai is built on Microsoft’s open-source and extensible Virtual Assistant.

Wireless blips are the leading problem facing the nearly 30 percent of U.S. broadband households owning a smart home device, said Parks Associates Monday. Loss of wireless connectivity and unresponsive devices lead the gripes of device owners, said the market research firm, citing a Q4 survey saying 29 percent of U.S. broadband households own a smart home device, up 20 percent from a year ago. "As market players look to expand beyond the established smart home devices like smart thermostats and networked cameras, the industry will have to address connectivity issues as well as privacy and data security concerns, which are top barriers for adoption of these products,” said President Elizabeth Parks.

The Dish Hopper DVR and Wally receiver now support the Google Nest Hello Video doorbell, said Dish Friday. When the doorbell rings, Nest Hello sends on-screen notifications directly to a connected TV, it said. Dish is the first pay-TV provider to integrate a Google Nest device into its ecosystem, and the doorbell is first in a series of planned announcements, it said. The Google program enables partner companies to request secure access and control of Nest devices in their apps to give consumers an opt-in choice for controlling their home. Device Access partners have to pass an annual security assessment from an authorized tester, Google blogged in October.

The millions of dollars spent on smart speakers with voice control will help convert over 128 million more homes to smart homes by the end of 2020, blogged ABI Research Tuesday. The connectivity embedded in the voice control front end devices will determine the connectivity consumers look for in door locks, lights, sensors, key fobs, wireless security cameras and more as they build out smart homes: “A voice control device is for life, not just for the Holidays," said analyst Jonathan Collins. With “no clear standard and no interoperability” between major smart home protocols, each new smart home is a battleground for each connectivity protocol to gain a foothold, said Collins, saying each added device underpins adoption of more devices leveraging the same connectivity protocol. Bluetooth, Z-Wave, ZigBee, Thread, Propriety, and Wi-Fi are competing to deliver connectivity in smart home devices, “often side-by-side in the same device,” with each sporting features and ecosystem drivers that appeal to specific original equipment manufacturers, systems providers, and consumers' requirements, he said. To date, Amazon has supported ZigBee via Alexa while Google Nest leverages the Thread protocol to communicate within the home to sensors and other devices: both also rely on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. New and reengineered wireless protocols will be available to players between 2020 and 2024, he said. A shift toward a more standardized approach is underway, said Collins; until then, the primary protocol will be 802.15.4-based offerings. Bluetooth adoption will see strong growth from 177 million smart home devices to 418 million between 2019 and 2024. The future potential for low-power wide area networks, and the promise of 5G to deliver direct connectivity to appliances and high-bandwidth smart home devices, could be a “further disruption point for connectivity in the smart home, encroaching into how Wan connectivity is delivered to devices and systems,” said the analyst.

Ikea joined the board of Zigbee Alliance, said the trade organization Wednesday. Ulf Axelsson, IoT architect at Ikea Home Smart, said elevating the home furnishing retailer’s membership in the organization enables it to “play a larger role in influencing the global IoT movement that’s connecting technology, design, and imagination.” Ikea’s goal is to “democratize smart home technology” by offering affordable products to mainstream customers, he said. The retailer's smart home portfolio includes smart lighting, blinds and speakers, along with wireless accessories; it sold 5 million Zigbee devices last year, it said. Other Zigbee Alliance board members are Amazon, Comcast, Kroger, Leedarson, Legrand, Lutron, MMB Networks, NXP Semiconductors, Schneider Electric, Signify, Silicon Labs, SmartThings, Somfy, Texas Instruments and Wulian.

The Sunsa Wand, a motorized wireless window blind adapter for consumer and commercial products, is slated for mass production in March, said InnoPhase, a fabless semiconductor company supplying the Talaria Two wireless chipset that's said to automate existing blinds and make them “smart.” The wand uses Wi-Fi cloud connectivity to tilt blinds open and closed remotely via app. Electronics, motors and batteries are inside the wand, said InnoPhase Tuesday. The direct-to-cloud technology, which doesn’t require a network hub, also can be used in smart locks, security cameras, smart speakers, voice assistants and remote sensors, said InnoPhase.

Nearly a quarter of U.S. broadband homes are likely to buy a smart thermostat this year, despite a general sentiment that the devices are too expensive, blogged Parks Associates Tuesday. Lowering the cost is key to driving adoption beyond the 11-13 percent of households that own one, said President Elizabeth Parks, noting utilities are among the energy players experimenting with subsidized offers and product-as-a-service options to expand adoption. Consumers bought about 5.8 million smart thermostats in 2018, generating $843 million revenue. For future purchases, voice control and compatibility with smart speakers are important features, Parks said; among smart speaker owners planning to buy a smart thermostat, more than 70 percent consider compatibility between the two to be important.

Consumers worldwide will spend nearly $7.9 billion on smart home cameras this year and $13 billion by 2023, said Strategy Analytics Monday. Dropping prices and stronger demand are fueling growth, with entry-level and midrange cameras from Wyze, Xiaomi, Kasa Smart, Ring, Ezviz, Zmodo and “dozens” of Chinese brands driving unit sales, per SA: Dollar growth for indoor and outdoor cameras will be driven by premium cameras priced over $100 from Alarm.com, ADT, Vivint and Google affiliate Nest, Amazon's Ring, and Arlo. Spending on video doorbells through 2023 will be highest of any camera category, the leader of products bringing consumers into smart home ecosystems, said analyst Jack Narcotta.

SmartThings announced the “next step” in its partnership with Philips Hue parent Signify that allows users to control their lights with the SmartThings app via the Schema protocol -- no hub required. App control will ease a barrier to entry for IoT adoption in the home, with “frictionless” installation and control and interoperability with other SmartThings-compatible devices, it said. The app is accessible through mobile devices and Samsung TVs; the SmartThings Schema cloud-to-cloud protocol is available in 10 million-plus homes worldwide.