Ring Round 3
Ring announced two new smart doorbells, the Ring Video Doorbell 3 and the Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus. Both are battery-powered and have adjustable motion zones to detect motion within 5-15 feet of the front door. The Plus has Pre-Roll, or the ability to view four seconds of (black & white) footage before motion is detected. This kind of functionality has already been available on Ring’s wired doorbells, but this is the first for battery-powered doorbells. The Video Doorbell 3 is priced at $199 while the Plus version is $229 and both are available for pre-order now, shipping on April 8.
The NPD Take:
- Ring continues to be the overly dominant brand in this category and a refreshed line up with new features like Pre-Roll add new value (maybe not enough value for current smart doorbell owners to upgrade, but enough value to drive sales among new consumers). And a refreshed line up is extra good news for more price sensitive consumers who’ve been on the fence, as the Video Doorbell 2 has already gone down in price.
Ring Round Third Party
Ring has – at least temporarily – paused third “most” party data collections. The company says this will allow them to add more privacy options to the Control Center menu. These additions are supposed to become available in early spring. Starting now, though, Ring users can opt out of sharing data that is used to generate personalized ads (which means getting impersonalized ads instead).
The NPD Take:
- Ring has taken a lot of measures to put its users more in control of their privacy settings. While these latest changes may not convince prospective buyers who have shied away from Ring, they should help to placate Ring’s current installed base of customers.
Google Assistant Now Supports Sensors
Google Assistant is adding native support for sensors – smoke detectors, humidity, temperature, water, the Nest Protect, etc. etc. Manufacturers of these types of products will now be able to add them directly to the Google Home setup. Google has also created a special device type for smoke and CO detectors to have different icons and separate commands from other sensors. For now, sensor support is limited to the devices simply answering questions – like the status of humidity in your basement. In the future, however, they could be used for Google Assistant routines or notifications, such as a fan turning on if air quality drops.
The NPD Take:
- Voice commands are all well and good, and still sometimes even fun to use. But the ability to have passive automation based on sensor data would bring the smart home to a new level of smart and up the value proposition for consumers to invest.