CES 2024: Samsung Is Going All-In on SmartThings
Like a lot of people, I’ve got an old SmartThings hub hanging around, powering one or two aged smart devices. But recently, I cracked open the SmartThings app for the first time in years, and discovered Samsung has been making some moves in the background—with more to come, it seems. If the Samsung presentation at CES 2024 on Monday was any indication, the company is betting big on SmartThings in the future.
SmartThings was first, but hasn’t been on top in a while
In the beginning, If you wanted to be a part of the Internet of Things, you had to buy into what SmartThings was selling. Back then, they were an independent company that sold a SmartThings hub alongside branded sensors and lightbulbs, but they soon ceased making their own devices to focus on being a multi-purpose hub for the evolving smart device market, and were eventually acquired by Samsung. In the years since, Apple, Amazon, and Google have developed their own hubs and voice assistants, which have become the leading smart home hubs oh the market. SmartThings no longer has the market share or utility of the big three have.
All along, Samsung has certainly been producing smart tech, including a whole world of connected appliances and smart TVs and a wireless speaker system that competes with Sonos, but it’s always been under the Samsung banner. But at CES, Samsung showed us an aspirational but fully realized SmartThings experience that could challenge the status quo.
Forget separate smart displays—that's what your TV is for
Samsung has given some real thought to the devices the family already rallies around: the fridge and tv. (Which, coincidentally, Samsung already produces.) The Samsung television line already has smart functionality, but the newest televisions will now be your daily digital hub, offering a highly customizable experience that you can treat like any other display hub. Use it to control your connected devices, monitor automations, and get updated news and alerts about the smart ecosystem in your home.
They’ve added a voice assistant, Bixby, which feels necessary in order to really compete with Apple, Amazon, and Google. I’ve been testing a new Samsung TV for the past month. While I don’t think Bixby is ready for primetime yet (it’s so sensitive it kept responding to TV dialogue, and I had to turn it off), it’s definitely a move in the right direction.
Keeping an eye on those devices is going to be a vastly different experience for most people, as they transition to a 3D model of your home that can visualize where every sensor, light, appliance, pet, and person is at any given moment. (Samsung Galaxy already produces wearables for most members of your family, and the new SmartTag2 will monitor location and health of your pet and report in when your pup has an elevated heart rate.)
A truly connected home
Samsung already has a Family Hub, a graphical interface, on their fridges; that too will receive the upgraded SmartThings experience, layering the AI onto their appliance sets. In the case of the fridge, it will now be able to tell what food you’re out of and help you replace it.
Samsung introduced AI upgrades to laundry with the Samsung Bespoke AI All-In-One Laundry Combo and Laundry Hub, which uses the new tech to better identify what’s being washed and how to do it efficiently, even aiming to cause your clothes to release fewer microplastics from your clothes. In the kitchen, AI will monitor water vibrations in boiling pots on induction cooktops and ranges to make subtle changes to the settings, and can remind you that you left an oven door open.
The new Bespoke Jet AI robot vacuum will troll the floor of your home, and aside from vacuuming and mopping, it will also help create this detail map of your environment. (I was impressed by the cordless Jet AI I reviewed last month, and I am hoping this floorbot works as well.)
Ballie is an AI assistant rolling through your home
Ballie is the culmination of the Samsung AI investment: a physical robot AI assistant. It's an appropriate name for the bowling ball shaped bot, which certainly wasn’t the only robot at CES. This isn’t even the first time we’ve been introduced to Ballie; he’s just received a few upgrades since we saw him last.
Yes, Ballie is basically a smart hub—responding to your requests, making phone calls and telling the occasional joke—but these AI bots promise to do much more. Ballie projects video on the floor in front of him, whether that’s video to keep your pet occupied or a video demo of someone making the gnocchi you’re trying to get right. Since it is rolling around the house, Ballie is meant to be a part of the family, greeting you and interacting with your kids and pets, and predicting your needs. For now, though, Ballie remains an aspirational product—no pricing or release date have been revealed.
Will 2024 be the year of SmartThings?
In many ways, Samsung is well positioned to dominate the connected home market; it has all the pieces in place in a way no other brand does: A thriving mobile ecosystem in the Galaxy brand, a well developed consumer computing department and a relationship with Microsoft, a fully fleshed out appliance market share, an outstanding reputation in the TV market, and likely, a hub that is still hanging out in any diehard smart tech enthusiasts house.