GM and hi everyone! Before jumping into this week’s smart home newsletter, a special welcome to the 38 newest readers of the smart home
newsletter! Thank you for giving me space in your inbox. 
First up Happy Christmas to all our readers 🤶🎅🎄, wild here this morning with kids getting their Santa presents! Nice time of the year allowing me to ponder on plans for next year both in the newsletter and over on the blog. One of my aspirations for 2023 will be to help more people generate a side income by installing all flavors of smart home devices.
As such I am planning to launch a new cohort of NGSHI students in early January with a significant discount for those of you who plan to join, so make sure you watch this space.
Here’s to another year of the smart home and check out what I’ve got for you this week in the emerging smart home space:
Increasing Expenditure on Smart Home Hardware 💰
Despite the tough economic times around the globe, customer spending on smart home products has increased in 2022. A recent report by ABI Research indicates that smart home hardware revenue is expected to exceed $30 billion globally. This is thanks to a growing expectation among consumers for smart home capabilities.
Top automation companies like Apple, Ikea, Somfy, and Amazon are already expanding their lineups of products to connect to existing smart home systems.
Additionally, the introduction of the Matter 1.0 specification enables cross-vendor smart home device interoperability. This helps maximize smart home products’ reach to consumers and makes it easier for homeowners to purchase and install new devices.
The new trends in the smart home industry have also led to growing interest in market areas such as hospitality and Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs).
New Ikea and Sonos Collaboration 🛋️
Ikea and Sonos have collaborated on a new Symfonisk floor lamp speaker, which will be available early next year. This new collaboration will be an addition to the popular and affordable Sonos-powered Wi-Fi speakers. Since the start of their partnership back in 2019, the two companies have launched a bookshelf speaker, a picture frame speaker, second-generation Symfonisk table lamp speaker.
The new speaker sits atop three slender legs and comes with a weaved bamboo shade that produces a soft, warm light. Buyers can purchase the shades in any color that matches their décor. Similar to the bookshelf and table lamp speakers in the Symfonisk lineup, buyers can pair the floor lamp speaker with another floor lamp.
Additionally, the speaker can be used in a multiroom setup or added as rear sounds in a Sonos system with soundbars like Sonos Arc, Beam, or Ray for a better sound experience. The new floor lamp speaker can be controlled using the Sonos S2 app and connected with various music streaming services. You can also add and control the new speaker using the Ikea Dirigera smart home hub and the Ikea Home app.
The Ikea-Sonos Symfonisk floor lamp speaker will be available in Ikea stores for $260 early next year.
Google’s Smart Home Products Now Support the Matter Standard 🦏
Google has announced that it has enabled Matter support for its Nest and Android devices. The new support will be activated without downloading or installing an update. This means that Google Home and Nest devices can now serve as hubs for Matter which you can use to control your smart home.
Google has also enabled Matter support for Fast Pair on its Android devices. This allows you to pair Matter-enabled devices to your home network. After pairing the devices, this new feature will also enable you to link Matter devices with apps and smart home ecosystems.
Additionally, Google has updated the Nest Wi-Fi Pro, Nest Hub Max, and Nest Hub (2 nd generation) to work as Thread border routers. This means you can use them to control all devices that support Thread.
Even though only a few devices are Matter-enabled, the tech giant has announced that more will be rolling out this holiday and early next year. The Matter-enabled smart devices will be marked with the Matter badge and will work with other Google and Mater-enabled products out of the box.
Qualcomm Unveils Wi-Fi 7 Immersive Home Platforms 🗼
Qualcomm Technologies Inc. has unveiled the Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 Immersive Home Platform, ideally designed to support the latest high-speed broadband connections and a selection of high-performance devices. The new platform delivers more than 20Gbps of total system capacity in a small, power-efficient, and affordable network chipset architecture. The Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7
Immersive Home Platform is designed to allow collaboration, telepresence, AR/VR, and immersive gaming applications.
The Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 Immersive Home Platform and Qualcomm Multi-Link Mesh offer multi-Gigabit coverage and low latency for modern applications, allowing immediate benefits for the newest Wi-Fi 7 and legacy devices. This platform will be available in the second half of 2023.
The Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 Immersive Home Platform will feature the following:
- Qualcomm Multi-Link Mesh
- Wi-Fi 7 technology
- High-performance platform innovation
Smart Home AI-Generated Illustration of the Week!
This is it for today, See you next Sunday morning 😉. If you have colleagues, friends, or neighbors that would benefit from knowing about smart home devices, please consider sharing them. They can sign up for the newsletter by going here.
– Gerard
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