Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Will the Matter standard of the smart home industry finally fall to the ground?

In March this year, the CSA Alliance (Connectivity Standards Alliance) revealed on its official blog that Matter Standard 1.0 will be made public this fall.

On September 14, Core Technology launched a software-hardware collaborative Matter standard chip solution; in July this year, Amazon launched a toolkit to help developers build smart home devices that support the Matter standard; and in June this year, Apple iOS 15.5 official version supports the connection of five smart home devices compatible with Matter protocols. All this indicates that the landing of the Matter agreement is close at hand.

Official statement of the ▲ CSA Alliance

Now, if you want to use Apple HomePod to control Amazon smart doorbell and open the door for guests at the door, only to find that it doesn't connect, when you want to use Huawei phone to control Xiaomi's floor sweeping robot, you also need to download an app, which is still a long way from the perfect experience of our smart home. The emergence of Matter standard is bound to become a key variable to stir up the smart home market and reshape the market pattern of smart home.

However, the release of this new standard, which has been expected by the industry for a long time, has been postponed again and again for two years.

In May 2015, the CSA Alliance released the Matter standard, which is recognized as a possible "unified smart home" standard. As soon as it was released, it was supported by foreign giants such as Apple, Google, Amazon and other foreign giants. Domestic Huawei, Xiaomi, Graffiti Intelligence, Green Rice Aqara have also joined. At first, the CSA Alliance planned to release the Matter standard 1.0 at the end of 2020, and then postponed it again and again, and there is still no exact time for the official announcement.

Although the Matter standard has not yet landed, all players have begun to prepare for the launch of products and development tools compatible with the standard, and its popularity can even be summarized as "no Matter unsmart home".

So, which domestic enterprises are well prepared for the Matter standard? Why is the Matter standard always "loud thunder but little rain" in the past two years? What other hurdles does the Matter standard need to cross in order to connect various smart home brands? To what extent is the process of relevant domestic alliances?

By combing the trends of domestic smart home players in the past year in compliance with Matter standards and in-depth communication with a number of industry insiders, we try to find the answers to these questions.

01. 53 enterprises are undergoing standard tests and 14 have "handed in papers." We can imagine that the Matter standard can be called a subversive smart home ecological experience: you can use Apple HomePod to control Amazon's smart doorbell, you can also use small smart speakers, you can control Xiaomi's smart door locks and cameras, and you can use iPhone to control various brands of floor-sweeping robots.

Matter standard is based on the most commonly used IP protocol in the Internet world, which enables smart home devices to interconnect among mobile phone applications, cloud services, Internet of things embedded systems, etc., simplifying the development cost of various smart devices and reducing the threshold for end consumers. Consumers only need to scan the QR code on the device to add their customization to the smart home system.

However, the Matter standard, which has been brewing for two years, has not been released for a long time. What are its participants up to?

1. Lengthen the front by testing many times

In July this year, the first phase of the SVE specification verification testing activity of the CSA Alliance has been successfully completed, which, in popular terms, is to test the interoperability, stability, security and so on between goods of different manufacturers. In August this year, the annual report released by the CSA Alliance showed that as of 2021, 53 enterprises and 134 devices of the Matter standard had been tested.

According to the CSA Alliance's website, these devices include smart light bulbs, plugs, switches, smart locks, thermostats, sensors, televisions and other smart home devices, while certified company products will be shipped to users immediately after the release of the Matter standard.

In addition, SUV specification verification testing is not only to test the availability of related platforms and equipment, but also to verify the maneuverability of CSA federation test certification processes and tools.

At present, the second phase of virtual testing and specification verification are also under way.

These tests are also the first step in the implementation of the Matter standard. However, due to the large number of manufacturers and equipment involved, the time of this testing process is also further extended.

2. 14 domestic players announced their support for Matter standard products

According to the public information, 14 domestic manufacturers have "launched" products that support Matter standards or announced that their products will support Matter standards.

These manufacturers cover the upper, middle and lower reaches of players such as chips and devices in the smart home market.

▲ has launched manufacturers supporting Matter standard products in China (as of September 2022) (collating self-public information, if there are any deficiencies, please correct them. )

Smartphone manufacturers and home appliance giant players in the smart home market have not yet launched related products. Chen Chang, head of IoT International Intelligence Business, revealed: "this kind of players will choose to optimize the model and launch related products after the landing of the Matter standard."

But what can these products do at a time when the Matter standard is not yet on the ground?

Chen Chang told Zhidong that these products are still in the stage of release planning, and no products that really support Matter standards can be put on the market.

At present, most of the products launched by these manufacturers still use connection protocols such as ZigBee and WiFi. ZigBee protocol can be said to be the existence of "grandparents" in the smart home industry, and its advantages are low power consumption, low cost and low delay. The Matter standard is actually born out of the ZigBee,CSA alliance, that is, the original ZigBee alliance.

After the release of the Matter standard in the future, these devices can be compatible with the standard through OTA upgrades, eliminating the need for users to buy new devices.

▲ Green Rice Aqara device is compatible with Matter protocol (motion picture taken from 2022 Works With Conference)

Wei Peng, general manager of Green Rice overseas product line, explained: "if the Matter standard is the language that devices use to talk to each other, then ZigBee and Thread are the infrastructure they use to communicate."

This is also the key to the fact that these products can be compatible with the standard through OTA upgrades without the need for users to buy new devices.

It is worth mentioning that most of these devices, such as servers and gateways, have the characteristics of low replacement frequency and high replacement complexity.

This can also be regarded as a first-mover advantage for manufacturers to seize this market.

02. Standard unification is an inevitable trend Matter standard good multi-smart home industry has been in existence for nearly 20 years, there have been many people optimistic, from all kinds of giants to start-ups, have rushed to this track. However, for a long time, the key problems such as non-uniform standards and fragmented equipment are hindering the development of this industry.

We can see the importance of Matter standard to smart home industry from its name. The original meaning of Matter is "matter" and is considered to be the basis of the existence of the world, and the same is true of the Matter standard, which is regarded as the cornerstone of the Internet of things.

So, what is the problem that Matter standard can solve in front of smart home industry, players and consumers?

1. The major smart home players enclose the land for the camp

Smart home is changing from the vision of consumers to a real device in the home.

There are more and more devices in a home, so how to interconnect different devices and make the smart home of users become a "whole" without the need for different App or other ways to control each other independently, become the shackles in front of smart home manufacturers.

In the early stage of the development of the smart home market, some smart home players have begun to build ecology for their products.

However, due to the immaturity of connection standards and communication protocols at that time, different smart home players enclosed the land and built their own ecological barriers. This has caused a lot of complaints from many consumers.

2. Small and medium-sized smart home manufacturers may lose their advantages.

One question is, how many smart home devices do you need in a family? From porches, living rooms and bedrooms to bathrooms and storerooms, from smart toothbrushes and lamps to smart TVs and refrigerators, different smart home devices are needed to meet the needs of users.

Behind this, there is also a fact that a manufacturer can not produce all the products, and products that can better connect with other manufacturers' brands will also become the favored object of consumers.

Coupled with the gradual maturity of the smart home market, in addition to home appliance manufacturers, smartphone players have also become important participants in the smart home field, such as Xiaomi and Huawei. By contrast, the smart home ecology of giant players is more perfect. To a certain extent, it will make many small and medium-sized manufacturers lose their competitive advantage.

3. Consumers' freedom of choice is limited.

From the perspective of consumers, when they choose smart home devices, smart home appliances and new home appliances, affected by brand influence, product quality and so on, users may choose different brands. However, in addition to considering the use effect and quality of the product, we also need to consider the compatibility with the existing smart home equipment at home, which will limit users' freedom of choice to a certain extent.

It can be seen that the introduction of a unified standard for the industry is obvious for both manufacturers and consumers.

Wei Peng said that a year ago, when the Matter standard was not yet mature, many green rice Aqara users responded that they wanted their products to support the Matter standard, and this year, the Matter standard has become a necessary attribute for any new product (smart home).

03. The Matter standard is difficult but correct, so in view of the above problems, at what level can the Matter standard achieve the interconnection of devices? We may be able to find the answer from why it has delayed the announcement so many times.

First of all, the general standard needs to consider multi-party requirements.

The Matter standard is an application layer specification that can run on any device that supports IPv6. This Internet protocol makes it possible for more and more smart home devices to connect. Liu Yang, an expert in the network department of Hebei Unicom, said in an interview with the media that IPv6 can provide as many as 2 to the 128th power of addresses, a number that allows every grain of sand in the world to be assigned an IP address.

This standard needs to develop a general object model for smart home products, so that these products "speak a language" in function and operation, which also puts forward high standards and strict requirements for the quality and stability of the code. therefore, the CSA Alliance needs to launch a commercial SDK software development kit. "this is why the CSA Alliance is conducting all kinds of testing and verification." Chen Chang said.

Secondly, balance the core interests of different manufacturers.

He added: "the CSA Alliance also wants to expand its ecology and influence." At present, more than 50 enterprises have participated in it, and this number will continue to grow in the future, but it will take a long time to test and certify all the more than 130 equipment. It is related to the core interests of various manufacturers, and their communication costs will be further enhanced.

▲ CSA Alliance Test Vendor, equipment quantity

Finally, find "common ground" on existing agreements.

The Matter standard is not to re-establish a new set of games for the smart home industry, but to seek common ground while reserving differences on the basis of existing agreements. Chen Chang revealed that some local connection protocols of the Matter standard need to be reformulated, that is, not only to maintain the efficiency of the connection, but also to maintain that each node has its own way of communication.

This is not just a common task, the CSA Alliance also needs to rewrite various protocols between smart home devices and communication protocols, and the protocols on the physical layer need to be modified. Therefore, he believes that it is normal for the Matter standard to have multiple delays.

From the point of view of the Matter standard itself, it is inevitable for smart home players to flock to it.

However, for domestic smart home players, another big advantage is that the Matter standard is led by Apple, Amazon and Google.

Chen Chang said: "I think Matter is not only a set of protocol standards, but also an authentication system, equipment certified by the Matter alliance, can naturally achieve interconnection." In the future, products that can access the Matter standard can access these three mainstream platforms, which is a very big market opportunity for smart players.

Therefore, at the just-concluded 2022 Works With developer Conference, Luo Zhijun, general manager of Graffiti Intelligence Asia-Pacific region, said: "once the Matter standard is released, the Matter solution of graffiti intelligence will be ready."

At the same time, Wei Peng, general manager of Green Rice overseas product line, also revealed that in the second half of this year, Green Rice Aqara plans to release its first Matter-compliant product.

In fact, whether smart home manufacturers or consumers, the advantages of smart home devices outweigh the disadvantages, which can not only increase the freedom of choice of consumers, but also improve the competitive advantage of smart home manufacturers.

However, the products that have been launched can not verify the effect of its access to the Matter standard, only when the Matter standard is really on the ground, can it be tested.

04. The rapid progress of the domestic version of Matter standards is still shackled by the game of interests. Every step of the development of Matter standards is very eye-catching. On the contrary, why is the relevant standards not as popular as Matter?

As early as December 2020, 24 academicians and major domestic smart home players, smart manufacturing enterprises and mobile operators, such as Ali, Haier, Huawei, China Information Communication Institute, China Mobile, jointly established the Open Intelligence Alliance (Open Link Association, referred to as OLA Alliance). As of December 2021, OLA has approved a total of 128 member units.

Chen Ting, technology director of IoT, said: "like CSA, the OLA alliance aims to establish a standardized standard system for the smart home market, to build a unified connection standard for the Internet of things and the industrial ecosystem, to solve the problem of fragmentation of the Internet of things, and to truly realize the Smart Internet of everything."

However, judging from its development process, the progress of the OLA Alliance has been in full swing.

According to the official website of the OLA Alliance, there are 37 standards in progress, including performance testing specifications, security technical requirements, cross-platform access specifications and so on. In addition, there are "Smart Home Lighting connection White Paper", "Home Edge Computing White Paper based on Smart Home Interconnection", and "Smart Home Interconnection whole House Smart scene White Paper".

The ▲ OLA Alliance has published a white paper

OLA Alliance has also made remarkable progress in product testing and certification. In May this year, the OLA Alliance Smart Home Committee also held the third joint test activity, covering all test cases of WiFi products.

However, as far as the commercialization process is concerned, the domestic alliance still lags behind the Matter standard. As the key to smart home interconnection, how to balance the interests of different manufacturers is still a difficult problem in front of the OLA alliance. The Matter standard has reached a consensus on the balance of interests among different players, and even though the release of the standard has been repeatedly delayed, its development process has begun to bear fruit.

Tan Guoliang, Midea's Minister of Housing Program and Ecology, said: "the domestic OLA Alliance is also actively promoting the production and pilot application of the project, looking forward to the participation of more manufacturers and speeding up the commercial landing." The consensus on Matter standards benefits from the leadership of Apple, Google and Amazon.

Participating in the two alliances are Midea, Huawei, Xiaomi, vivo, Nanjing Union of things, Infineon, Orebo, TCL and other manufacturers. In his view, this is not contradictory, whether from the consumer or the industry as a whole, solving the isolated pain points of the industry between devices is the biggest thrust of these alliances.

In any case, realizing the interconnection between devices and improving the user experience is an unavoidable topic for smart home players, so it is only a matter of time before the standard is unified.

05. Conclusion: domestic players ready Matter standard landing is still unknown, whether smart home manufacturers or ordinary consumers, the Internet of things can not be interconnected for a long time. Therefore, in any case, the unification of smart home standards is one of the inevitable trends in the development of this industry.

Usually, the importance of a thing is positively related to the difficulty. Matter standard to unify tens of thousands of smart home players into a standard, which is very difficult, in addition to technical reasons, the launch of this standard involves the interests of all parties, and this has put a big question mark on the promotion of Matter standard.

So far, it remains to be seen whether the Matter standard will be launched as promised this fall. Domestic players are actively preparing for the Matter standard, which undoubtedly adds to the importance of this standard.

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