It's becoming apparent that I seem to know more than most of the YouTube influencers (and I'm not smart, just bored and read a lot in home automation). The omisions, incorrect info, and conjecture has become very apparent to me these days. I still enjoy his channel as well as others for seeing new devices, I find most of the smart home channels to be rather amateurish.
Who here really thinks that Apple will take over the smart market? Apple already has all of their cult followers, but they will never convince the majority of users to buy in. This has been the case in every product catagory since their inception.
Anyways all of these influencers seem to be heavily contributing to the confusion for new users of smart home products. They all mish mash their ecosystems with no regard for continuity. Maybe that's why they all praise Matter, they don't understand compatibility and just buy and recommend more and more.
I don't watch any of them specifically because when I did I would get ticked off that they were wrong and so many took it as absolute gospel.
In the end Matter, wont matter much. Eventually Amazon, Apple and Google will decide they want their Matter devices to stay in their ecosystem, and the perceived value of matter will cease.
I take most of what I see on YouTube with a grain of salt . I do watch them to get ideas and for new products. Like you, I do my own research before making a decision. I love Paul Hibbert - I find him hilarious. I know, I know some find him annoying. He HATES hue. But I LOVE hue. I didn't listen. Hue always works and does what I want. I spend more but I want my smart home to be consistent. He did get me to see that there are other hubs that I could be using. That is actually how I found HE.
I do think that they can be confusing. I only have three I actually watch consistently. When they talk Apple, I don't pay attention. That is just not a system I am interested in. Apple taking over smart homes- I don't think so.
They always get a new device and praise it based on their 1 day usage and basically if it works or not. But they never evaluate things such as integration or local control. They don't care about that stuff.
They seem to just market their videos to the most basic people and if that gets them the views then that's the direction they will go.
But if you are a more advanced user these videos will frustrate you.
I can't imagine the numer of smart home apps sitting on the phone of the smart home solver alone. He must have 1 for everything.
Everyone talks about Matter, so naturally they are too, because who doesn't want more clicks to feed the YouTube algorithm, to let Google know that "more people should watch this video," so they can make an extra buck. For some, the YouTube channel is what puts food on their table. It's all about economics. Can you really blame them for selling what people want to hear?
No I cannot but let's be honest. YouTube influencers are the modern day used car salesman. Sleezy tactics and little to no morals/ethics. I am not accusing any particular influencer of that but the group as a whole.
How many iphones are there? How many homepod mini at $100 mini are needed per iphone - one. Off course if Apple is working with Google one of them is going to screw it up but the market is large.
So your saying 75% of all users are going to lock into Apples ecosystem. I think not. My actual prediction would be the rise of some sort of open source as people tire of a duopoly.
From an end user perspective, I loved the customization offered by projects like Cyanogenmod, but the need to futz around to get a desired UX was a major reason why I moved to iOS. It behaves maybe 90% the way I’d like, and I get that with no futzing/flashing etc etc
Influencers are simply driven by what will generate clicks. Create content on the hot topic people want to see (ie, Matter) regardless of the depth or actual value. Most things online are based on clicks.
