In this age of innovation, it’s a little strange being in your mid-life. With the pace at which technology is changing, my parents can barely keep up, while those younger than “us” missed out on the origins of the computer, internet, and smartphone.
It’s strange, when I consider that schools’ approach to teaching technology today starts, disappointingly, with simply ensuring kids have tablets; claiming that everyone needs equal exposure to tech in order to experience it and not be disadvantaged. The approach to teaching technology today is access to it without the hacking that we had to do 20 years ago to even make it work. Kids are growing up and working in tech with no hands-on experience with how a computer actually works, the role of an operating system, understanding of memory vs. storage, the implication of processors, what’s involved in making the internet work, nor how to make a website from scratch.
I share that thought, not in criticism of young people but rather mere observation that people today are exposed to tech by way of Minecraft and an app that teaches programming; whereas those my age, who grew up with tech, essentially had to create those things to experience them.
What does that have to do with Home Automation?
While the computer is ubiquitous in society today, in the eighties and nineties, as the personal computer grew up from being a tech enthusiast’s hobby to a more mainstream home appliance, the world was separated between those who embraced Apple’s products and those who embraced “the PC.” Of course, most everyone today is aware of that, but precious few really experienced it firsthand. While people today still favor Apple or the alternatives, today’s preference is much more driven by marketing (brand) than functionality and capability. After all, to most, a smartphone is a smartphone and few appreciate the significant distinctions between an iPhone and one powered by Android.
Decades ago, the distinction was as great as night and day as there were in fact certain things computer owners could only do with a PC, or a Mac. That distinction was what drove forward society’s adoption of the computer.
A Brief History of PC vs. Mac
Before Dell put a PC in every home (yes, Dell was essentially the Ford of computing), customers chose between the defined and developed experience of a Mac and the fairly custom, made-to-order PC (Computer geeks, bear with me, I realize the old Macs were also custom built… go with me to the time after that). One of the first computers in our home was a custom built PC that a neighbor had pieced together after we determined the components and software we wanted.
The distinction for consumers was that Apple’s products were more packaged: standard hardware, operating system, and software in all Apple products; or 3rd party solutions designed specifically for Apple. As such, because of the software made for them, the “standards” resulted in Apples becoming known as graphic designers’ computers with limited gaming options. Those were the programs most available.
On the other hand the PC, really still custom built even today, had only one standard: the operating system – Windows. PC owners could easily customize every piece of hardware resulting in more memory or storage, better graphics, faster processing, and so forth, depending on what one wanted and was willing to spend. Software too was more diverse as anyone could create anything for Windows; without adhering to a standard hardware AND operating system, which required dedication to program for Apple, programmers had much larger market available when only the OS needed to be in place.
Interestingly, unbeknownst to many, iOS and Android are living out the evolution through which Apple went with Microsoft in the smartphone industry. Apple and Microsoft are now Apple and Google.
What that distinction did though was foster adoption through BOTH experiences:
- Apple made it easy for designers and less sophisticated customers to get comfortable with a computer
- PC fostered the hackers, early adopters, and greater diversity of programmers who, in creating a greater variety of hardware and software, commoditized the computer while bringing the geeks into the business world.
The commoditization of computer parts and software brought more into the market AND reduced the cost, drastically so, to the point that there was a computer in every home.
Now, I’m oversimplifying what happened but generally speaking, that’s what transpired and that’s how the computer became a permanent fixture in our homes and offices. One business model, driving the hip and unsavvy, through a complete package, at a cost, while the other business model enabled the geeks and businesses at lower costs, by standardizing only the framework, with unlimited possibilities.
20 years later as I’ve mentioned, Apple spurned the same arms race for our attention with the launch of a completely standardized iOS on a smartphone, to compete with Palm and Blackberry, and when Microsoft fumbled the ball, Google picked it up, standardizing an OS but not the programs or hardware, on Android devices.
What PC vs. Mac Means to Home Automation
| I’m a PC. Years ago, Apple went after the PC market with a commercial showing a cool looking guy talking about how great it was to be Apple, next to someone meant to less appealingly, represent “PC.” And while the commercials worked well for Apple, just as many PC enthusiasts watched them and thought, yep, I’m still a PC.
I’m also an Android. PC and Android essentially means I prefer to customize, hack, and personalize more than is possible with Apple products BUT that’s only possible because of the standard OS. I can change my phone, select from far more software (as of July, there were 100,000 more Android Apps than iPhone), all less expensively, than I can with an iPhone. As a hacker, I’m an early adopter of home automation. I’m enamored with the idea of my home reacting to me; to doors opening, my radio starting, and lights setting the mood, at my command. I tried QR codes as soon as they came out, NFC chips sit in my closet, and old Z-wave (home automation) devices gather dust in my garage. |
Home automation tech, you see, only recently started to figure out that the demand for Internet of Things (IoT – the connectedness of everything from our refrigerator to our garage door) signaled a tipping point for home automation.
Unfortunately, home automation has largely adhered to the cult of Mac.
Unsuccessfully mind you, but home automation devices and technology have either tried to completely control the entire experience you have (standardizing everything to a proprietary brand as did Apple) OR it’s developed chaotically like the wild west days of the early computer, trying to build all manner of technology and software WITHOUT the standard of the operating system that made the PC accessible. As a result, home automation today is largely either the early days of Mac, when you had to spend thousands of dollars to get a limited but completely compatible set of experiences, most of which would remain incompatible with other tech and/or end-of-life and go unsupported OR a hackers game, as tech enthusiasts cobble together Raspberry Pis, tablets, various operating systems, switches, modules, and task rules to engineer an automated home. No PC.
Well, not quite…
The challenge for the home automation industry, in its infancy, was a lack of meaningful Venture Capital (necessary to fund establishing a market standard) and the rise of the Lean Startup principles (favoring minimum viable iteration), at a time when Apple’s dominance of the Smartphone market, made it clear that everyone should try to be Apple. Companies, rather than tackling the long play market opportunity, focused on Apple’s branded, turnkey solution hoping that would enable them to quickly adopt some customers and establish a business.
The problem with that is that the lack of a player focused on the larger market opportunity, results in what we have today: many many many branded solutions and little interoperability – No way for everyone to participate in home automation at lower prices by way of a standard of interoperability that ensures that people have the PC, er… automated home, on their terms.
Consider though that the evolution of the home automation industry, as such, makes some sense. After all, we can’t have a standard operating system without a hardware foundation. We wouldn’t have Windows without everyone wanting a computer. In home automation, what is it that we all want??
Enter the contenders: Piper and Amazon
Yes, Amazon! And… Piper?
Let’s start with the later. One thing most people have or want in their home, in some capacity, a foundation on which to automate, is video monitoring and security. Don’t we have a standard in our TVs and laptops? No, we don’t automate from such technology; home security though, is automated. Thus Piper, a wireless, home security camera, easy to use, inexpensive, and with an operating system (and mobile app) that holds the promise of interoperability with anything else.
I was turned on to it a few weeks ago and fell in love with the fact that my camera gives me the ability to watch, and talk, with my kids while I’m at work. At it’s core, it’s a replacement to those monthly cost home monitoring services but the simple fact is that it’s an always on, wireless camera with an operating system meaning that it can secure your home and more. It works with many other devices that control lights, power, and sensors and while still limited in that interoperability, the company is relatively new and expectedly developing such that it will work with much more.
Our other contender, I think, is Amazon. While Google and Apple evolve from smartphones and streaming TV hardware to driverless cars, intent on owning you on the road, Amazon made a brilliant move, emerging from their struggled attempt at putting a tablet in your hands, and launched Amazon Echo. A home 
appliance finally, capably putting artificial intelligence in your home.
|
“The Echo may be the closest thing we’ll have to a Star Trek computer at home.”
– CNET |
I should point out, I don’t have an Echo (maybe they’ll send me one for writing this *hint hint*) so Amazon’s device serves to establish my point rather than focusing on a specific product. What will everyone have in their home? A means of talking to something to get the weather, a traffic update, add something to their grocery list, or turn on the lights. Our foundation for home automation may well also be established by the device to which you talk and control devices with a command.
PCs. We’re getting there in home automation. A foundation on which an operating system enables hardware engineers and software programmers to iterate whatever they might want, to help bring to the market not just the simple but constrained experience of singularly branded, standardized solution, but the flexibility that most of us want to create the experience we prefer, with the confidence that it works together and will remain forever supported.
If you get started with Piper, let me know, I highly encourage it as a toe in the water to home automation and a simple way to monitor your home of office. If you’re buying an Echo, get me one too.
Oh we could get in to a big discussion regarding this topic sometime.
Let’s, I’m getting sucked in!
I’m game!
Android wins.
Good article Paul.
Great article. The first computer game I had was for a Tandy 64k Color Computer II. I was 10. I bought a book that had the code in Basic. I had to type it all in for endless hours in order to play. I learned basic coding principles because of that ordeal. Even played around with the code to see what would happen. Incidentally, I also learned the hard way why you have floppy drives (the first project was gone once I rebooted- I was sooooo pissed.)
10 CLS. 20 For X=1 to 100. 30 Print “The Rad Shack Trash-80 CoCo! I never had one of those pricey boxes. My 1st was a TI 99-4A that I got on clearance for $100. Dan2.0…Your assignment today is to write a program not using a REM statement that results in: ‘Showing Your Age!.’ BTW-Was that book titled something like “101 Basic Games?” I seem to remember that book when I’m not too deep into the senility!” 40 Next X. 50 End.
Bwahahaha! I think that was the book!!!
I love your posts. This topic is awesome. Great read! Hope you get an echo.
I wouldn’t firmly put myself in either Mac or PC camp. According to popular belief, I *should* be a diehard Mac lover, but it’s been 5 years since I switched and there are still things I really miss about being on PC and that still shock me that Mac cannot/does not do.
Thanks for sharing!
Karen, I don’t think people are necessarily Mac or PC so much as the market demanding both business models. It took the PC to foster mass adoption of the technology just like it took Android to do the same the Smartphone. Sure, the Smartphone market is a bit different in that it became an indispensable tool so more of the market was willing to pay the hundreds required to get an iPhone; but it took Android to bring the prices down to <$100 and make it accessible to everyone. Home automation isn't indispensable as was the phone. Being Mac alone, expecting everyone to want your brand and full suite of home automation experiences, will never open the mass market to the technology. We need the "PC" to standardize the OS around a piece of hardware we all want/need (such as Piper security, Echo, or, it occurs to me: thermostat like Nest which could do it) to significantly reduce the cost while making reliable personalization possible.
Great post, Paul. I’m ripe to pull the trigger on some home automation devices, so running across this was quite serendipitous.
Since we’re sharing…my first computer was a Timex Sinclair, which was quickly replaced with the beloved TI-99 4A. I fapped out TI Basic until my fingers hurt just to see a sprite move from one side of the screen to the other. Backed up my code to a cassette player.
I was one of the original Apple fanboys and didn’t buy my first Windows PC until the mid ’90s after Apple pulled the plug on their Mac clone program, which had briefly allowed us to install their OS on our own custom hardware. I’ve never purchased another Apple product since. You might think I’d been scorned, but, really, it was the tinkering and customization that led me astray. I had also given the Be OS an honest try during its short life and even had a Sun SPARCstation. But, PC parts were so easy to come by and I could build what felt like a supercomputer for half the price of a Mac workstation.
Choosing Android over iOS was a no-brainer and my first was the Nexus One followed by a Nexus S, a Nexus 4 and ultimately a OnePlus One running Cyanogen. I ended up with a OPO for much of the same reasons you spell out here, namely the ability to make it look and function however I want.
Aside from the few Nests I have installed, I’ve yet to get in bed with a home automation platform, though I wonder if services like IFTTT will provide the much needed agnosticism in this fetal stage of the market. I did stumble across this post (https://securitygem.com/home-automation-product-work/), which has some tables showing compatibility between various platforms, though I’m not sure how accurate they are.
I’ve been intrigued by the potential of IFTTT myself; I’m a Tasker (etc.) user on Android but frankly, despite their popularity, those too are still hacker bent and not exactly consumer friendly. Most people who use IFTTT, I suspect, use it for one or two obvious things; enabling popular recipes. Most, don’t create their own or have much concept of how to do so.
Enough of a bandaid at this fetal stage? Perhaps.
I think perhaps instead there might be a market for an innovative developer and team to build the software layer for home automation that focuses only on mobile app integration with devices by way of recipes. Let everyone else fight the hardware wars. Go for the OS that operated a fragmented world.
Yes, people are easily influenced by powerful branding and pretty things. But I’ve always been a function over form girl. Bring on the accessible, scalable, affordable, and useful functionality!
Yep, you are right on point Paul.
So I got three Echo Dot’s for Christmas.
Despite my wife’s objection, (“you only need one”, of course that one would be in the one room that she uses) I set them up in three different areas of the house. Seems logical to me, I want to be able to yell “Alexa” from anywhere in the house and have her answer. Nobody else that lives here, except sometimes the dog, answer me when I yell their name. Of course the first night I apparently did not name the “den light” correctly so Alexa kept telling me she could not find anything called den light. I renamed it damn light instead, seems to work.
Now as I am getting sucked into this world of home automation, I find there are no standards. Even when you order something from Amazon that is listed as working with the Echo, only to learn that well yeah it kinda works but you really need to also buy this or that hub to get the full functionality. Look I already have 2 hubs, 3 dots, light bulbs, home alarm, door bell and fitbit that talk to each other, just how many radio waves can one endure before I get brain cancer or something. Still I’m hooked and I can’t wait for Alexa to control my Apple TV, oh wait Apple says I need to use Siri to control that.
I wonder if Siri knows how to turn on the damn lights?
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much.
There’s a whole community of makers building all kinds of connectivity to cameras, and small devices like Arduino and ESP32 for detection and control of just about anything.
Yeah, and still what is missing is the interoperability and convenience of that standard familiar and accessible to all. The PC/Windows, if you will
i think i see. your use of PC is interesting. so you mean more configurable — but not really hackable?
there definitely is a lack of products in that area.
things are either full-nerd-hackable or just an appliance. there’s not a lot in between things.
i suspect the issue is security.
IOT devices deal with highly sensitive data (like video inside the home).
it’s probably difficult to give users a lot of control while keeping their data safe from accidental exposure.
VC’s are probably wary of being the next data breach.
The issue, in mass adoption? Is interoperability and ease of use.
Hence that analogy to a battle of decades ago. Apple/iOS made easy but it wasn’t interoperable. PC/Windows made interoperable and accessible. As result, 90% of the world got on PC and suddenly everyone had one
Home automation and IoT is neither. It keeps fighting with itself for marketshare and dominance. x10, Homekit, zwave, arduino… most don’t know or care what that stuff means or does.
All anyone knows is that it doesn’t work easily or together.
Until… along comes Amazon and Echo (for example). While the hackers and hobbiests are happy futzing around with proprietary hardware and protocols, Amazon realized that all anyone wants is that when the plug something in, it works.
Suddenly, like PC, everyone has Alexa
i was with you right up until the last sentence. LOL
Alexa and PCs are both popular. But the reasons don’t seem too similar.
one is proprietary, the other an open platform.
one is a technology leader, the other is commodity hardware.
one is easy to use, the other is windows.
Agree to disagree.
Alexa apps are not proprietary in the sense that they are on iOS. Pretty easy for anyone to add an app.
Windows is the distinction; it too is (was) the tech leader.
Majority of the world started using computers thanks to MS. Certainly easy.
Echo/Alexa
PC/Win
I think that goes for everything?
Truer words