Back in 2007, when the first iPhone came out, the word ‘smartphone’ was barely known or used by general public. Now, eight years later, they have taken over the world. It is expected that by 2016 the number of smartphone users worldwide will surpass two billion, which is more than one-quarter of the world’s population. Impressive, right?
However, if someone had told you, some 9-10 years ago, that you would be connected 24 hours a day, seven days a week to the rest of the world through your mobile phone, and that you’ll feel so ”lost” without it, would you have believed it? Imagine you had to go back to a regular old mobile phone, with no internet connection. You wouldn’t like that! Well, perhaps 10 years from now you won’t be able to live without your smart home. Maybe, in 10-15 years people will find it hard to believe how they were able to live in a regular home instead of a smart one.
Every day, more and more devices within our homes get connected to the Internet: from smart thermostats, to light bulbs, security cameras, and door locks. The sum of those devices and their interactions is what ultimately makes a smart home… well, smart. But in order to be able to function properly and work as one, those devices need to be managed from a centralized control station, somewhere they can send all the information and data they collect, from where they can receive instructions and interact with each other. Some sort of remote control that allows owners to manage their home features as a whole. And that is where the smartphone comes in.
Thanks to wireless technology, we can now control the many functions of a smart home through our smartphone, in real time and from anywhere in the world, via an Internet connection. This is what the Internet of Things, or IoT is about.
The best thing is, wireless, remotely monitored smart homes are scalable, which means that you can start small, and then grow according to your needs. You need a living room camera? No problem. You want to add the ability to control your lights, or a smart thermostat? They will fit in seamlessly within your system. You can build a completely customizable smart home that suits your needs and lifestyle, and then manage it from the palm of your hand.
Home automation allows us to schedule a time for the garden to be watered, every day at the same time. Smart home technology can check the weather on your smartphone, see that it is about to rain and deactivate the sprinklers automatically. That would not have been possible without smartphone technology which, in short, paved the way for the new connected smart home era.
