Wyze has turned the smart home market on its head, providing some surprisingly high-quality devices at what seem like impossibly low prices — most notably its cameras. But what we’ve seen so far appears only to be the tip of the iceberg, as the company currently has some 30 devices in development.
The news comes as part of a new effort by the company to raise additional investment above and beyond what it has already managed to do through sales alone. In a four-and-a-half-minute video posted to YouTube late Monday, the company disclosed that the oft-rumored Wyze Outdoor Cam is real. A video doorbell and thermostat are planned to launch this year as well.
Wyze provided no other details in the video other than confirming its intention to release these new devices. With the doorbell, outdoor cam, and thermostat, Wyze would have a device in just about every major smart home category, as well as more than two dozen other devices planned for the future. That’s a lot of smart home tech.
We’ve not heard any details on price at this point. It’s reasonable to expect however, similarly competitive pricing to its other devices; the narrator in the video calls the price of these newest additions “insane,” claiming “nobody will be even close.” Wyze also notes in the video that its in-house person detection is nearly complete. The company also plans to offer 24/7 home monitoring to compete in the home security market later this year.
The person detection is also welcome news for current owners of Wyze devices. Wyze Cams did have person detection through a partnership with Xnor.ai, but the company terminated its agreement with Wyze in November, with all cams losing the functionality shortly afterward through a mandatory firmware update.
Put together, these moves suddenly make Wyze a rival to the biggest names in smart home technology, notably Amazon-owned Ring. Following Amazon’s purchase of the brand in 2018, Ring quickly expanded beyond its doorbell and camera roots to a full line of smart home product, including smart indoor and outdoor lighting, security systems and monitoring, and broader integration with third-party devices.
We can only assume that some of Wyze’s planned products in the works would compete with Ring’s other products — Ring’s smart lighting products are relatively pricey, and its strength in video doorbells has dictated the price in the sector for years.
Either way, it looks like 2020 will be a breakout year for Wyze, which says it hopes to make smart home technology as common as the automobile. Stay tuned.
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