That’s one takeaway from this week’s Connections conference in Burlingame, Calif., which brought together some of the biggest names in the smart home industry. Attendees included Comcast, which earlier this month revealed that it has surpassed the 500,000-subscriber mark for its Xfinity Home platform, and home security giant ADT, which claimed 1.2 million users of its ADT Pulse home automation service -- nearly one-fifth of its total customer base -- in its second-quarter earnings report last month.

And that’s just a few of the bigger hosted, subscription-based services. Retailers such as Home Depot, Lowe's and Best Buy, appliance and thermostat makers like Whirlpool and Honeywell, bundled communications providers like AT&T and Time Warner Cable, and security-plus-solar players such as Vivint, are all bringing wirelessly networked, smartphone-controllable devices to market, whether as partners or as competitors.

Research firm and Connections conference host Parks Associates reports that about 10 million smart, wirelessly connected thermostats, lights, power strips and plugs were sold last year, and it predicts that figure will nearly double to 19 million units by 2017, with a commensurate growth in market value from $850 million to $1.6 billion.

From the article "The Connected Home: Reaching Critical Mass for the Grid?" by Jeff St. John.

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