Panasonic has launched its new air conditioner (AC) range for 2024, which includes a range of Matter-enabled room air conditioners. Matter is a new universal connectivity standard for smart home appliances, allowing interoperability via brand-agnostic mobile applications. With this launch, Panasonic becomes the first brand in India to launch an air conditioner following this protocol. The Japanese brand has launched 60 models of Matter-enabled ACs including 1.0 ton, 1.5 ton and 2.0 ton models.
Announcing its AC series, Fumiyasu Fujimori, Managing Director, PMIN, Panasonic Living Solutions India said, “The new AC series includes India’s first Matter-enabled RAC, which not only offers interoperability but is also easy to use, reliable and secure. By working with Seamlessly connected to other Matter-certified devices and platforms, they will promote smarter and more efficient use of energy, optimizing comfort while minimizing environmental impact.”
Matter-enabled ACs can connect via the company’s Miraie app, which also uses the same connectivity standard. Users can also use any other Matter-enabled application to control the device. These new styles can be purchased in major offline stores, e-commerce platforms and the company’s website.
What is Matter, a universal standard for connecting smart home appliances
In recent years, a big focus in consumer technology has been on interoperability and unified solutions. Last year, Xiaomi launched HyperOS, which replaced the MIUI system to connect and unify all its IoT devices with a single interface. On the hardware side, Apple finally ditched the Lightning port in the iPhone 15 series in favor of a USB Type-C port to comply with the European Union’s new rules for a unified port for all consumer electronics devices.
Matter is a similar protocol for software unification and connectivity of smart home and IoT devices. The common standard is proposed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (formerly the Zigbee Alliance), which consists of more than 500 companies. The agreement first made headlines in 2019, when Apple, Google, and Amazon joined forces with the Zigbee Alliance to create a unified connectivity system for smart homes.
It solves a core problem for smart home owners, which is managing multiple applications to control various smart appliances in the home. The situation is similar to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when users were forced to keep multiple remotes to use their devices until universal remotes emerged. Matter aims to mirror similar solutions via network protocols to connect compatible devices and systems regardless of their make, model or manufacturing origin.
Universal connectivity standards focus on a four-pronged solution. The first is interoperability, which will allow users to purchase any smart home appliance from smart TVs to smart lights without having to worry about downloading its companion app to control it. The second is simplicity, as it ditches the complicated setup process and provides a simple user interface to connect all the devices in your home via WiFi. The third issue it solves is security, as Matter uses an encryption system to ensure that data shared between different devices is protected from any outsiders trying to hack the user. Finally, it also addresses reliability concerns, as the protocol is designed to evolve and adapt to newer smart devices that may be invented in the future.