IKEA doubles down on its smart home ambitions

IKEA is planning to make an even bigger bet on the smart home with a new dedicated business unit and increased investment.“At IKEA we want to continue to offer products for a better life at home for the many people going forward. In order to do so we need to explore products and solutions beyond conventional home furnishing,” says Björn Block, Head of the new IKEA Home smart Business Unit at IKEA of Sweden. After launching smart home lighting in 2017, IKEA has been quickly expanding its offerings. This month, the world’s largest furniture retailer partnered with Sonos to launch whole-home audio solutions (for much cheaper than Sonos’ premium-priced devices).IKEA is now launching a new ‘IKEA Home Smart’ business unit to help develop new devices to push to the 780 million shoppers who visit the retailer each year.