Hama sees voice control and interoperability big pushes for smart home

Headquartered in Monheim, Germany, Hama is one of the world’s leading suppliers of consumer accessories, offering a range of 18,000 products in the field of Telecommunications, Consumer Electronics, Computer and Photos. At IFA 2017, Hama presented a new product line under the name “Intelligent Home Series.” Thomas Bobinger, Senior Product Manager of Hama explained Hama’s strategies of smart home business in an interview with SMAhome during IFA 2017.

“This year, we have a step ahead to fully incorporate Amazon voice service with Hama smart home products. For us, this is a totally new access into smart home because the control gets an audio interface, and becomes hands-free and independent from mobile devices,” said Thomas Bobinger, Senior Product Manager of Hama GmbH.

“Especially for those small appliances, voice control can be more convenient and user-friendly. Our approach to the smart home market is to supply the full-integrated Alexa products for home users,” emphasized Bobinger.

Three lineups

Three lines are designed under Hama's “Intelligent Home Series”: Hardware, Skills and Accessories. Hardware includes HAMA branded smart speakers and soundbars integrated with the Alexa Voice Service; “Skills” means those smart devices such as lamps and socket adapters responding to commands of the Alexa Voice Service – generally known as “Works with Amazon Alexa”. The Hardware and Skills products of the Intelligent Home Series are licensed with Amazon Alexa now. They guarantee the full functionality with Alexa Voice Services. Accessories refer to speaker stands and cables for the original Amazon Echo and Echo Dot speakers.

According to Bobinger, Hama is the first maker of Alexa powered soundbars in the world. “Hama smart speakers and soundbars can control the household devices and accessory products that support the Alexa Voice Service. Digital speaker products launched under the Hama brand name will work with Amazon Alexa,” said Bobinger.

The “Skills” lights and sockets compatible with Amazon Alexa and Wi-Fi are the most potential category to expand in the future for Hama. The voice control supports both English and German now.

The key factor: Interoperability

With more than five-year experience in multi-room connection and digital radio technologies, Bobinger considered that Hama has benefited from the compatibility with multiple brands while joining smart home. He views interoperability as a key factor of smart home development.

“For consumers, it is very important to use products from different brands as a system. So it means the platform should be wide open,” Bobinger said. “Also, consumer may want to try something they didn’t know or didn’t experience before as a part of their smart homes. Interoperability is a decisive factor while choosing products.”

Bobinger believes Amazon, Google and Apple the strong market growth drivers for smart home. “Hama will keep working on products compatible with Google Home and Apple HomeKit, other than Amazon Alexa. We’d like to make our lineup expandable and open for smart home,” he cited.