New Philips Hue Christmas Lights
Releasing under the Philips Hue brand, Signify has announced Festavia, a line of string lights for the holidays. The string includes 250 smart LED lights along a 66-foot cord. The lights offer a variety of effects including changing colors, different light gradients and, of course, connectivity via the Philips Hue app. Festavia ships with two new light modes, Sparkle and Scattered, the latter of which spreads five random colors along the string of lights. The lights are compatible with Bluetooth, Zigbee and Matter.
The NPD Take:
- Festavia joins a few other connected Christmas light products on the market, but Philips’ strong brand and market leadership in smart lighting will help distinguish the brand at retail.
- Compatibility with multiple technology standards including Matter will ease buyer questions about compatibility with products already installed in the home.
CSA Reveals Matter Launch Numbers
During the Connectivity Standards Alliance’s Matter launch event in Amsterdam earlier this month, the organization’s president Tobin Richardson revealed that 190 devices were either certified or in the process of being certified with Matter 1.0. Since the standard will encompass a large variety of devices, the CSA announced the standard will be updated about every 6 months to keep up with the fast-moving marketplace. The Matter standard presently has the backing of 280 companies in the industry.
The NPD Take:
- While 190 devices sounds like a small number of products in an industry as vast as home automation, Matter is still in its very early stages and continues to gain acceptance. As Matter affiliated products gain a presence at retail and media and other outreach drive awareness of the specfication’s benefits, we should see Matter’s market share increase sharply.