Is "Home Automation As A Service" The Future?

As I prepare to head to CEDIA this week to visit with companies such as Comcast, Control4 Corporation, Core Brands Nortek, Honeywell International, Insteon, and Napco Security Technologies, I’ll be excited to see what’s new in the Home Automation space. Tradeshows are a fountain of information, and as I try to determine who (and what) consumers are going to buy, I keep coming back to the same question: Will Home Automation as a Service (HAaaS) dominate the market? My basic instincts tell me that though the large players are not consumers’ favorite companies to deal with, the factors driving customer “purchases” have already given incumbent providers of services to the home a leg up—but maybe not for the reasons most people think.