Smart Home: Netatmo leaves (not) Matter, Nanoleaf leaves the thread 133 comments
Image: Géralt
Surprises in the smart home industry: Netatmo suspends Matter implementation and Nanoleaf rejects Thread again. Two years after the official launch of Matter, the multi-manufacturer smart home standard is still a work in progress that does not work in the same way for all manufacturers and with all devices.
Unlike two years ago, Netatmo is not currently planning to market Matter compatible products. This is a completely surprising retreat from the company, which was originally considered one of the pioneers of the new smart home standard. Netatmo had already presented the first Matter compatible sensors at IFA 2022, before the launch of the standard, but they were never marketed. In addition to the temporary suspension of Matter, Netatmo also suspended the use of the Thread radio protocol, considered a central pillar of the Matter standard.
What is Matter and what is Thread?
Matter was introduced in 2022 as a multi-vendor smart home standard and aims to increase or even create compatibility between devices from different vendors. With each release of Matter since its market launch, new classes of devices will be added to the standard until at some point, according to the plan, all smart home devices can use the standard. Among the initiators are big names like Amazon, Apple, Google and Samsung. Matter supports two communication paths: WLAN and Thread, an IP-based mesh wireless protocol intended to ensure stable and fast connections in the smart home while operating in a very energy-efficient manner. Eve Systems, among others, relies entirely on Thread as the radio protocol for its smart home system.
Netatmo currently sees no interest in Matter and Thread
Netatmo also wanted to build on Matter over Thread and was one of the first manufacturers to announce Thread-based products, including a touch and motion sensor. However, due to Thread’s slow progress and lack of market maturity, development was halted. According to Netatmo, the wireless protocol has proven to be immature and currently does not provide significant added value to customers.
Marc Chachereau, R&D director at Netatmo, spoke critically about Matter and Thread to Heise: “Matter currently offers no immediate benefit in our system. The introduction of an additional protocol does not in itself improve the product. Additionally, Matter platforms performed worse in many cases than established solutions, for example when controlling heating thermostats that did not have a heating phase editor. Matter cannot yet be used for cameras offered by Netatmo because these devices are not yet part of the standard.
Thread’s implementation is also criticized. Although the protocol is theoretically interesting, it is not yet market-ready and not widely used. “Without Matter, Thread is useless. “Radio technology is interesting for the future, but ZigBee is currently more mature,” explains the Netatmo product development manager. ZigBee is used in products that Netatmo develops for parent company Legrand.
In marketing, however, the two techniques have not yet been completely abandoned, as Marie Tranchimand, sales and marketing director at Netatmo, points out. They therefore continue to be involved in the standard and also believe that the future belongs to Matter, “but at present the standard is not yet the perfect answer to the needs of the smart home world.”
By early 2023, Wemo, a sub-brand of Belkin, had already withdrawn from Matter and abandoned the smart home devices planned with the standard. Here too, the back door was left open to support the standard at some point.
Nanoleaf and the removal of Thread
Lighting specialist Nanoleaf has also given up on Thread. Instead, the company relies on Matter-over-WiFi. Annika Beck, marketing director EMEA at Nanoleaf, points out to Heise that Thread products are too complicated for many customers because they are not easily compatible with existing smart home centers. The subject still requires too much explanation for end customers and is a disappointment from a commercial point of view.
Even if the – partial – withdrawal of these two companies will not deal a death blow to the Matter standard, it clearly indicates how long it will be necessary to wait before there is only one smart home for customers in which they will have to worry about standards and You no longer have to worry about compatibilities, you can simply purchase the individual components you need.
Updated October 3, 2024 at 5:54 p.m.
Netatmo has now made it clear that the description that they would initially turn away from Matter altogether was a misunderstanding. Although the standard and thread are heavily criticized in their current form and do not yet see any benefits for the user, they expressly do not want to withdraw from the smart home standard and will continue to actively work on new ones. new products. Product development isn’t just about keeping a backdoor open. Additionally, it has not yet been decided whether to abandon Thread.
Themes: Matter Nanoleaf Netatmo Smart Home
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