Amazon and Google dominate the smart home market. Beyond Amazon’s ever-expanding line of Echo smart speakers, the tech giant also owns home security startups Ring…
Amazon and Google dominate the smart home market. Beyond Amazon’s ever-expanding line of Echo smart speakers, the tech giant also owns home security startups Ring and Blink — and Wi-Fi router brand Eero. Smart thermostat maker Ecobee receives funding from Amazon. Google owns Nest and brought the company further under its control this year, rebranding most of its connected devices from “Google Home” to “Google Nest,” like the Google Nest Mini and the Google Nest Hub.
Our current list of best smart home devices features 12 products; seven of them are Amazon or Google devices — or devices made by Amazon- or Google-owned (or funded) companies. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They’re all solid gadgets and we heartily recommend them. As much as Google and Amazon (the latter especially) deserve credit for bringing some much needed organization to the smart home category via their popular voice assistants, it’s easy to forget that the smart home industry is bigger than these two companies.
