Page 2: The Internet of things >>
By Peter Gardett
Managing Editor, AOL Energy
The Internet's power will allow management of the home in ways that save energy and money automatically in its next stage of development, a pioneer in the online world
attending the Consumer Electronics Show told AOL Energy.
AlertMe CEO Mary Turner helped launch some of the first large Internet services in Europe, and now she is helping the technology developers of the next stage of the Internet build a cloud-computing platform hub that lies at the heart of a new partnership with home goods retailing giant Lowe's.
AlertMe is more than a product for smart meters or facilitation of the smart grid, Turner said.
"To date the Internet has been about communicating with others and engaging with content, but another transformation is taking place," Turner said. "The macro environment is poised for the integration of smart devices into the home."
Convenience and flexibility are at the heart of AlertMe's Iris home management system, which will be offered on roughly 10-15 devices sold at Lowe's starting in the second quarter of this year, with a total of 20-30 devices eventually covered under the agreement.
The key difference for Turner from other smart meter systems is the absence of reliance on a single device, meaning the system can adapt to customer usage requirements and with what customers are currently used to in dealing with Internet platforms. As with other systems, AlertMe and similar connected device systems will have to earn customers' trust, Turner said, but she says customers are more sophisticated than they are often given credit for: "Everything in our lives today is digitized – this is no different for consumers than existing levels (of connectedness)."
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