Mobile phones have become many things, and I am just waiting for the first to appear which does away with that 'make and receive voice calls' requirement. Mind you, there is some argument that the iTouch does that, considering that it is an iPhone without the phone bit.
But I digress.
Nokia has been one of the movers and shakers in the smartphone development market for as long as I can recall. Now it has taken one more step into the realm of mobile phone madness by announcing it has developed a smart home platform that will allows users to control their homes with their cellphone.
The announcement today says that Nokia is working on something called the "Nokia Home Control Center" which will be a "new era" platform for networked home services and solutions. Think next generation security, smart home solutions and household energy management systems and Nokia will be happy that you have got it.
I am not sure that I have, to be honest. Sure, I like the concept of an open platform to allow third parties to integrate their own smart home solutions and services; anything that is truly plug and play with regards to extending functionality is a good thing.
But why would I really want to "monitor and control... electricity usage, switch devices on and off, and monitor different objects, such as temperature, camera, and motion" from the comfort of my mobile phone when away from the house? I really am not either that paranoid nor that sad.
Nokia says that there is "growth potential in the smart home market" and the Head of Corporate Business Development, Teppo Paavola, insists that "the home of today has intelligence everywhere, but to date there has not been a solution that is interoperable with wide range of home systems that can easily be controlled. We want to create an open solution where external partners can develop their own solutions and services on top of our platform. We believe that the mobile device is an ideal interface to control home intelligence, especially when the user is not at home."
Maybe I will head to Barcelona next week to check it for myself at the Nokia World show where the system will be demonstrated. Or maybe I will just wait for the YouTube video and watch it on my Nokia N95.
