I’ve been in the smart home and IoT space for over 20 years. I’ve built companies, launched products, forged OEM partnerships with brands like Orange, Telmex, Constellation Energy and DormaKaba, and I’ve watched this industry evolve from a niche curiosity into a multi-billion-dollar ecosystem.
So, I’m going to ask the question nobody seems to want to ask:
Why are there 200+ smart door lock SKUs on the market, and why does that number keep growing?
Walk any trade show floor. Open any distributor catalog. The residential and commercial access control space is drowning in product. Every month, another lock with a new form factor, a new app, a new “AI-powered” feature that amounts to a slightly prettier keypad.
And then there’s the protocol fragmentation. Z-Wave, Zigbee, Matter, NFC, BLE — each with its own ecosystem, its own compatibility requirements, its own integration headaches. Rather than converging around a clear standard, the industry keeps layering complexity on top of complexity. The result is a category that is genuinely difficult for even sophisticated buyers to navigate, let alone the average homeowner or facilities manager trying to make a straightforward purchasing decision.
Here’s what I’ve learned after two decades in this industry: market proliferation is not the same as market innovation.
More SKUs don’t solve the real problems. Interoperability is still a mess. Installation still requires a professional in most commercial settings. The channel is fragmented between builders, integrators, security dealers, and big-box retail, and most products are trying to serve all of them, which means they serve none of them particularly well.
I’ve seen this pattern before. It’s what happens when capital flows into a “hot” category and everyone rushes to stake a claim. The result isn’t a better ecosystem, it’s confusion for buyers, margin compression for manufacturers, and a race to the bottom on price.
The companies that will win in smart access aren’t the ones with the most SKUs. They’re the ones who get ruthlessly focused, on a specific channel, a specific use case, a specific customer problem, and build the operational muscle to own it.
I co-invented a lock technology. I know how hard it is to bring a hardware product to market. Which is why I have zero patience for product-market fit theater dressed up as innovation.
The door lock market doesn’t need more products. It needs more clarity.
Whether you’re a small lock company trying to keep up, a startup convinced you’ve cracked the code, or one of the big players trying to rationalize a bloated portfolio, I’m happy to spend an hour with you. No pitch, no agenda, just a straight conversation. Reach out for a free consultation.
What do you think, is the market maturing toward consolidation, or are we still in the “throw it at the wall” phase?
#IoT #SmartHome #AccessControl #ProductStrategy #HardwareStartups #ConsumerTech