The pace of smart home innovation hasn't slowed a whit in 2024, with new products such as the Amazon Echo Show 21 being unveiled just this week. The better news is that the smart home is no longer a niche market appealing only to enthusiasts willing to tolerate steep learning curves. We are, however, still living in a world of smart home silos; namely, Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Home. The increasingly important Matter standard will unify those ecosystems one day, but that won't happen until Matter incorporates every smart home category. Considering that, we've picked more than one product in several categories, based primarily on which silo your smart home is in.

Amazon's household robot is exactly what I expected, but it's not what I wanted and it definitely isn't what anyone asked for. Instead of a multitasking mimicry of me that can empty the dishwasher, pick up my kids' shoes, feed the dog, and clean the house, Amazon's first attempt at a home bot is simply a souped-up Echo Show on wheels. It also has two cameras that it uses to find people and places in your home to deliver items, reminders, or timers. It can act as a security guard and patrol your home when paired with a Ring subscription, and it can fart and burp. In short, the Astro does everything Amazon's smart home products and services already do -- only on wheels. But the Astro is a robot. And that part is really cool.

From healthcare and retail to automotive and manufacturing, every industry is getting smarter with technologies like IoT. Failing to stay competitive in this space can result in significant losses. The global pandemic was a significant roadblock for IoT growth in 2020. Although a November 2019 forecast predicted that IoT spending would grow 14.9% in 2020, it could only grow 8.2%. Based on forecasting from the International Data Corporation, IoT will return in stride this year and achieve a growth rate of 11.3% from 2020 to 2024. Recently, a shortage in semiconductors and other IoT components poses questions for IoT's growth in 2021.

One way to build out a smart home is to buy lots of components--sensors, smart bulbs, security cameras, speakers, and whatnot--and connect them all to a hub that helps them communicate with each other and with you, via your smartphone. But let's be real: That can involve spending a lot of money and investing a lot of time. If your wants and needs are simpler, just a few relatively inexpensive products will deliver most of the conveniences a high-end smart home can deliver, and on a much more modest budget. And if you make sure those smart home products are compatible with each other, you'll build a solid foundation that you can expand over time. The key is knowing which smart home products don't depend on a smart home hub to operate.

Headquartered in Quebec, Canada, Sinopé Technologies might be less familiar than some other smart-home brands, but we've reviewed several of the company's products and found a lot to like. Today, we'll take a look at its new Zigbee smart dimmer switch (model DM2500ZB), and its new smart home hub, the GT130 gateway. These two products are part of a new family of Zigbee 3.0-based products that Sinopé launched this spring, a collection that also includes a smart in-wall outlet, a smart switch, and updated smart thermostats. With its embrace of the Zigbee smart home protocol, Sinopé is relegating its proprietary smart home family--the Mi-Wi series, which included the GT125 gateway--to "legacy" status. Now when you buy a DIY Sinopé smart home product, you can control it with the company's own GT130 gateway or with any other Zigbee-based smart home hub, including Samsung SmartThings or any of the Amazon Echo smart speakers and displays that are equipped with Zigbee radios.

A lot of news hit the industry last month at CES 2020. Amid new product and service announcements were some partnership announcements too. One that's worth picking back up and discussing is the new working group formed by Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance called Project Connected Home over IP, which aims to develop a new, open standard for smart-home device connectivity. According to MarketsandMarkets, the smart-home sector will be worth 151.4 billion by 2024. Growth will be driven in part by factors like increased awareness and adoption of smart devices, a growing desire for saving energy and reducing carbon footprints, the ubiquitous adoption of smartphones, and increasingly accessible solutions in terms of pricepoint and ease of use.

AI-powered and IoT-enabled applications like personalized and predictive automation along with predictive maintenance will enhance the user experience and add value to the smart homes by making life more secure, comfortable, convenient, and safe. AI and IoT are the leading factors in the growth of smart home markets. Smart living with automation and integrated AI-IoT is no longer considered as a luxury as home automation tools have become more affordable. Smart home control can be enabled either by local hardware or by a cloud-based intelligence. The application of AI in managing the smart home infrastructure helps in gathering data from the home automation devices, predict user behavior, provide maintenance data, help enhance data security and privacy.

Perhaps you've heard the recent rumblings that Google is revamping its smart home line to exclusively include Nest products--and is rebranding under the name Google Nest. If not, here's a brief rundown of what happened: Google made the big announcement on May 7, indicating that Google Nest would be eliminating the Works with Nest program that allows Nest products to be controlled by smart assistants like Amazon Alexa. Since then, I've been wondering what exactly that means for how I'll control my Nest products going forward. I have a Nest thermostat and several Nest outdoor cameras and I often use Amazon Alexa (and the Nest app) to control these smart home devices. Other Nest users shared in my bewilderment, taking to Twitter to express their confusion about the merger.

If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA Today's newsroom and any business incentives. It's cost effective to snag smart home products when they're on sale, and right now it just so happens that Amazon is having a huge sale on just about everything. That includes otherwise pricey smart home devices from brands like Hue, Sonos, Arlo, Ring, and many more. We've rounded up the most impressive best Prime Day deals on smart home products below.

Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo or Echo Dot can be used to control smart home products such as the Ring Alarm Kit. If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. Our picks and opinions are independent from USA TODAY's newsroom and any business incentives. Prime Day is a great opportunity to find money-saving deals on smart home products that can be controlled using Amazon Alexa on your Echo device. From smart doorbells to pressure cookers, here are the best Alexa-compatible Prime Day deals of 2019.