Jordan O'BrienGoogle’s Brillo and Weave Internet of Things platform received a glamorous announcement last year, but since then nothing has really happened with it. That’s all about to change however, with the first wave of companies announcing support for both Brillo and Weave.
Only four major manufacturers have confirmed that they are working on products based on the platform, which is designed to make smart home products work better with Android smartphones and tablets.
Asus, Harman, Kwikset and Marvell all have products on the show floor of CES 2016, although details about each one are currently scarce.
Asus’ offering is a smart home bridge built around the Brillo platform. The idea is to make Asus’ other smart home products work better with Android smartphones, which conveniently the company manufacturers.
It’s a slow start for Brillo compared to HomeKit and while Asus is a major manufacturer it is not a large player in the smart home field. HomeKit’s first wave of products were from dedicated home automation manufacturers, such as Lutron, Insteon and iHome.
That doesn’t mean that Brillo is inferior in anyway however, as Asus has staked its reputation on the platform, promising more Brillo-powered products later in 2016.
Harman is a diverse company with a wide range of high-end audio products. Later this year it will also have Brillo and Weave-enabled products, although the company has not yet said what they will include.
Kwikset is a little more forthcoming with its plans, announcing a new generation smart lock that connects over Weave.
Those familiar with Kwikset’s old locks will be surprised by the sudden change of design – notably, the ability to access using a traditional key is gone in favour of a completely keyless system, like the August Smart Lock.
A prototype of the device is available on the showfloor at CES 2016, but other details are still scarce.
Marvell’s announcement at CES 2016 is a Wi-Fi chip that speaks Weave, designed to make it easier for other companies to start building smart home products that natively talk with Google’s platform.
While those are the only announcements of CES 2016 thus far, 2016 is set to be a big year for smart homes; so Google’s platform could become more prominent just as Apple’s HomeKit has.