LG's Smart Home Revolution, all From Your Smartphone
LG Electronics has announced its 80% stake in smart home platform, Athom. A smart home features dozens of interconnected devices and systems that can be remotely controlled from a smartphone, enhancing convenience, energy efficiency and security.
The South Korean consumer electronics leader LG was founded in 1958, selling washing machines and air conditioners, which users operated manually. Now with Athom’s Homey, users can control, automate and monitor their entire smart home and LG appliances, from iOS or Android.
In its acquisition, LG will see the integration of Athom’s smart home hub with LG’s Gen AI-enabled LG ThinQ platform.
Running an AI-powered smart homes, from your smartphone
Mobile devices, from smartphones to tablets, are the primary interface for controlling smart home devices and systems remotely. From their home, from work or while on holiday, users can make adjustments to their smart home, such as:
- Adjust thermostats
- Turn lights on/off
- Lock doors
- View security cameras
Like personalised adverts, smart home AI utilises adaptive learning and predictive behaviours. It can anticipate users' needs based on their past behaviour, to optimise, for example, energy use. This results in a highly personalised living environment.
Athom’s open ecosystem enables LG to incorporate third-party devices from around 1000 applications and services into its control, providing LG with insights into customer usage patterns when interacting with devices not their own, to still deliver eclectic personalised services.
LG’s acquisition of Athom is part of its plan to scale up the ecosphere of connected devices of a smart home, in the belief that the insights of all of a home's devices will be needed to be connected to usher in a truly personalised, AI-powered smart home.
This integration aims to create usher in LG’s AI home, which aims to get customers to engage with Gen AI to manage their connected appliances, before branching out into commercial spaces.
Athom acquisition paves way for AI-driven, open ecosystem Smart Homes
LG's latest acquisition shows its intent to influence what it believes should be the future of connected living spaces. LG’s focus on open ecosystems and AI-driven personalisation could set new standards for smart home technology, providing users with new levels of comfort, efficiency and customisation in their daily lives.
“The acquisition of Athom is a cornerstone for our AI home business,” said Jung Ki-hyun, Executive Vice President and Head of LG’s Platform Business Center. “By leveraging the synergy between the two companies, we will expand our open ecosystem and external integration services, aiming to provide customers with more diverse and multidimensional space experiences.”
“LG is evolving into an intelligent space solutions company that connects and expands experiences in various living spaces,” said William Cho, LG CEO. “We will continue to make strategic investments to shift our business paradigm, as evidenced by our successive entries into platform-based appliance services and solutions such as the webOS advertising platform and AI home.”
This development will see LG evolve into a 'Smart Life Solution Company', as the integration of Athom's open platform with LG's AI technology is expected to accelerate the development of more sophisticated, user-centric smart home ecosystems.
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