Comcast ups its smart home game with new "Works with Xfinity" program
BI Intelligence
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Comcast has unveiled the "Works with Xfinity" smart home program, a new service that allows approximately 15 million of the company's broadband consumers to connect and control smart-home devices from various manufacturers for no additional cost.
Compatible devices include products from Alphabet's Nest, Honeywell, August, GE, Netgear, Philips, and other well-known connected home device makers.
Customers will be able to control these devices through the X1 voice remote device, the xFi mobile application designed to control Xfinity's home Wi-Fi networks, or through the Xfinity Home mobile application designed to control its professionally installed smart home offering. In addition, they can set these devices for certain settings based on the time of day. For example, a user might say, "goodnight," to the X1 voice remote, which would prompt the system to shut off all the lights in the home, lock the doors, and activate any connected security cameras.
Though Comcast won't build revenue directly from this service, it's trying to help spur smart home adoption and boost subscriptions to its professionally installed Xfinity Home offering. The company sees itself in a unique position to leverage its core internet service business to help galvanize overall smart home adoption, Sridhar Solur, the company's SVP of product and development for Xfinity Home, told BI Intelligence.
While Works with Xfinity doesn't offer an immediate revenue opportunity for Comcast, the company can collect and analyze home data from an additional swath of users. But, more importantly, Works with Xfinity gives the company the opportunity to expose more users to smart home devices, perhaps convincing them to eventually become subscribers of Xfinity Home, adding to a subscriber base that's already growing rapidly. British telco Vodafone also unveiled a similar service back called "V for Vodafone" last fall, and it's possible other ISPs and telcos could follow these firms' leads, which would ultimately boost global smart home adoption in the coming years.
BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the US smart home market that:
Analyzes current consumer demand for smart home devices based off results from BI Intelligence's proprietary survey.
Forecasts future growth in the number of smart home devices installed in American homes.
Analyzes the factors influencing the proliferation of voice control devices in the homes.
Identifies and analyzes the market strategies of various companies that have integrated voice control into their smart home ecosystems.
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