Zigbee Alliance renames as Connectivity Standards Alliance and unveils Matter, an interoperable connectivity standard to ship in smart home devices this year
An industry alliance sponsored by Apple, Google, Amazon and other tech companies will begin certifying smart home devices later this year …
Context & Ripple Effects
Matter is the formal next step from the universal smart-home standard partnership Apple, Amazon, Google and the Zigbee Alliance announced in 2019. The alliance’s new name and planned certification program turn that joint effort into a recognizable standards body and product label.
The initiative’s importance is borne out by its later progression from Matter 1.0 certification to Matter 1.3’s added appliance, energy and water-management support. The key change here is the attempt to make cross-platform compatibility a requirement at the point devices reach consumers.
First-order effects
- The Connectivity Standards Alliance takes responsibility for certifying compliant devices, while Apple, Amazon and Google gain a shared interoperability target rather than separate smart-home compatibility tracks.
- Smart-home device makers can prepare products for a single Matter certification path intended to work across the major backers’ ecosystems.
Second-order effects
- Platform owners must compete more on setup, software experiences and services when compatible devices are no longer as tightly tied to one vendor’s ecosystem.
- Certification becomes a commercial gatekeeper for device brands seeking placement in the backers’ smart-home programs, a role later reinforced when Apple, Google and Samsung accepted Matter certification for their “Works With” programs.
Third-order effects
- If certification achieves broad adoption, smart-home competition shifts from proprietary device connectivity toward the control layers and consumer experiences built on top of a shared protocol.
- Matter’s subsequent expansion into appliances and resource management, including Matter 1.3’s broader device support, points to a standards body extending interoperability beyond early smart-home categories.
The trend: Smart-home platforms are using a shared certification standard to move differentiation from device compatibility to the software and services surrounding connected homes.