The acquisition of Eve Systems by Swiss multinational firm ABB represents a watershed moment in the evolution of smart homes and smart buildings. Eve Systems (formerly El Gato) is a veteran name in the Apple ecosystem.

The company has been a large exponent of HomeKit, Thread, and Matter. It sells a catalog of solutions that run the gamut of smarthome items, from connected light switches to gardening timers and blinds. The company’s 50 staff have also built a global reputation firmly embedded in the Apple ecosystem.

Eve Systems has become an arm of ABB’s Smart Buildings Division, which Frost & Sullivan recently recognized for creating, “buildings that actively support the global transition to low-carbon energy because they are fitted with leading-edge technologies that enable automatic lighting, air conditioning, heating, and motion detection, among other convenient features.”

A $29.4 billion company, ABB has more than 100,000 employees across the world. It’s a leading electrification and automation technology provider with numerous interests, including robotics, co-bots, Industry 4.0, and more.

The company’s ABB E-mobility division has also been building components for electric vehicle charging for over a decade. What all these industries have in common is an accelerating process of digital transformation.

The challenge is that industrial connectivity of smart devices is as complex a space as smart homes were until the advent of Matter/Thread. You have multiple standards —many of them incompatible — driving unnecessary inefficiency and complexity to those markets. Just as it did with smart homes, this complex environment undermines the productivity promises industry leaders bought into in early Industry tech iterations.

Thread and Matter may help harmonize these discordant beats. The standards make it possible for different smart devices to integrate, even on HomeKit networks.

It means that as an independent firm within ABB’s wider umbrella, Eve Systems is in a good position to build on that integration, which should help boost wider interest in smart home devices and open opportunities for the company in enterprise tech.

"Thread has been a spectacular success for us, and in a not-too-distant future a Thread network in your house will be just as common as Wi-Fi," Eve Systems CEO Jerome Gackel said in 2021.

That’s something we can anticipate will become mandatory moving forward, as governments worldwide seek to exploit digital technology to improve energy efficiency. ABB itself has claimed that smart automation in commercial buildings can decrease energy costs by up to 50%. The ABB website cites a report from Architecture 2030 that says buildings account for almost 40% of global carbon emissions.

An in-depth report based on interviews with business leaders worldwide confirmed serious interest in energy consumption management among enterprise chiefs. While a smart light in everyone’s home might be nice as consumer accessory, on a global scale when applied to transportation, construction, and building redesign, these solutions could help manage energy demand at scale.

They also enable more resilient (in the sense of reducing waste) energy supply as energy production migrates to renewables. This makes sense to any energy customer currently staring with gloom at ever-climbing bills.

In a statement announcing the acquisition, ABB Electrification’s Smart Buildings Division President, Mike Mustapha, said: “Matter and Thread, in which Eve is a leader, is a game changing development for the uptake of smart home technology. It allows different devices and services to integrate flawlessly, intuitively, and securely, making it possible for people to manage their energy, and their surroundings conveniently and safely.”

The one big thing about this acquisition is that it suggests deployment of Matter, Thread, and therefore HomeKit will accelerate as one of the world’s leading electronics firms introduces these technologies across its projects. That’s something that can only mean a huge increase in consumer exposure to these technologies, which should in itself increase recognition and adoption of these systems.

It’s a significant inflection point for smart home evolution that means Apple’s own platforms will be inherently supported in the new age of building design.

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