So, Target’s idea is really a smart one (no pun intended), because the model helps to demystify connected home products and inspire guests just like me to explore the world of connected home living. Target says it also plans to learn from Open House. Both Target and its partners are getting real-time feedback from the real consumers interacting with their products.
To be sure, there is still a lot that needs to be figured out about the future of the smart connected home by the industry and consumers alike. The industry vision is that all our smart connected devices (that make sense) can be controlled remotely, easily talk to each other (in industry speak “are interoperable”), and provide data that can be analyzed and acted upon and protected, for the betterment our lives.
That there is a lot of work to be done, particularly on interoperability and the data analysis and security front, was also reinforced by the Churchill Club panel that featured some of the top experts in the field from Nest, Intel, Qualcomm, Forrester Research and Accenture.
Today, security is a chief concern to people adopting smart home technology. That’s security as in “home security.” But as we all see more smart connected devices coming into our homes and realize the data is flowing—not only in our homes, but outside of them, data security is only going to become increasingly important to all of us.
Target’s Open House underscores just how fast the future is coming and the need to be ready for it. Hopefully, this will not only be a great starting point to get more consumers interested in the concept of the smart home, but will also get them engaged and thinking ahead about the need to secure all that data being generated in our smart connected homes now and in the future.