Smart Homes

Bill Gates's 'smart home' cost $113M. Now you can have the same kind of remote control over your dwelling for as little as $10 a month.

Bill and Melinda Gates's "smart home" in Medina, Wash., cost an estimated $113 million to build - but that's pennies compared with what consumers are starting to spend every year on making their homes smarter.

Thanks to a host of new, lower-cost home automation technologies, cable operators and telecoms are targeting the average homeowner with cheap bundled subscription services, often controlled from their cell phones.

Some of the "Genius" home's spectacular features:

Analysts have high hopes for the burgeoning smart home market: Now an estimated $1.3 billion, it's expected to balloon to nearly $10 billion worldwide by 2010, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan.

Of course, some of this stuff has been around since the 1970s in the form of X10, the industry standard for TV remote controls. But new wireless standards (like Insteon, ZigBee, and Z-Wave) and cheaper chipsets have enabled two-way, low-cost communication between devices.

Some firms like Control4, Cortexa Technology, and Exceptional Innovation are targeting real estate developers. The aim is to make an automation system - set-top box, central touchscreen, wireless cameras, and sensors - standard in new homes.

Partnering with communications companies
New York City-based Xanboo, whose technology powers AT&T's new service, also got $20 million in funding from strategic investors including Motorola (Charts). In 2005, Motorola partnered with Xanboo on a product called Homesite, which cost $220 and let users monitor their homes on cell phones.

Now, with AT&T's service, users buy Xanboo's starter kit - including IP camera and wireless door or window sensor - for $200. Xanboo president Bill Diamond says the company is in talks with about 20 other mobile operators in Europe and North America.

Conclusion
Before the average homeowner opts for such a service, however, he'll need a little convincing. "It all still seems kind of Star Trek to most people," says an SmartHome Analyst. "But is home automation going to grow and become more mainstream? Yes on both counts."

What do think folks???