

Who Will Win the Smart Lock Race, August or Lockitron? - ejlowry
http://www.hackthings.com/who-will-win-the-smart-lock-race-august-or-lockitron/

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flyinglizard
Interesting piece, and reinforces my belief that "branding is everything".
That includes the company name, the design of the product (and overall design
language) and the kind of marketing that you do.

One thing I disagree on is the name choice in the case of August. Customers
face so much input and distractions that I wouldn't advise anyone to name
their company in a mysterious way that will provoke any kind of curiosity in
the customer. Most will just skip your product. This one time it works because
of the guy behind the company and the coverage he's getting, but I wouldn't
count on this branding working outside of the tech circle and the early
adopters which constituted the 10k of orders. The design is very good though,
while Lockitron's is the definition of lazy design (just copy an Apple design
and be done).

I particularly liked the author's comparison between GoPro and Contour. I
admire GoPro's branding. The name is perfect (it creates the association
between buying the product and becoming a pro, which is brilliant), the
marketing is perfect and even the product packaging and store display is
perfect. This is executed on an Apple level. Very few companies are this good
on their branding. It all comes together to a "feel good product".

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malandrew
Neither or both. The market is ripe for the taking by one or many smarter
solutions than the status quo.

There are more than enough locks in the work that could benefit from a smart
lock. And network effects are unlikely to matter since at the end of the day
there will be multilock apps that can unlock any manufacturer's smartlock via
API.

Why does it always need to be a battle? In fact, they possibly could do better
by teaming up to develop the market instead of compete over it.

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devindotcom
Seems a little premature right now. I don't think we're quite at the
"explosion" level yet for this type of device, like when the iPod blew up in,
what, 2001?

I think we're more at the Zen/CD-MP3 player level... feeling out what's
possible with convenient technology before someone hits on something and adds
a twist or a feature that makes it click not with tens of thousands of people
but with hundreds of millions.

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maxerickson
There are others. Boring old Kwikset is partners in one of them:

<http://www.kwikset.com/Kevo/default.aspx>

Apparently featured on Shark Tank. I would think having a well established
retail sales channel is a nice advantage.

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DanBlake
Neither. <http://www.kwikset.com/Kevo/> is the most likely winner, seeing as
its backed by kwikset.

Also, it has a way more appealing (to me) look- No bulky device hanging on my
door.

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paulgerhardt
You're looking at the outside of the door. From that side Lockitron looks
identical. You can see the inside of Kevo here:
<http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-12261_7-10016926-8.html>

