For much of the world, one of the first brands that come to mind when discussing home improvement is IKEA. The Swedish company now maintains an incredible 422 of its one-stop-shop home and furniture stores across 50 countries. The 957 million store visits and 2.5 billion web site visits in 2018 have generated an impressive 38.8 billion euros in retail sales. Despite this lofty position in the Home market, IKEA is nowhere near the first name that comes to mind when discussing Smart Homes – but that is promising to change with the announcement of significant investment and restructuring of the firm’s smart home division. Officially, IKEA entered the smart home market in 2012 but little happened until 2015 and when it did, it wasn’t much. The Swedish firm chose to begin its smart home journey with a range of wireless phone chargers, some built into other appliances and furniture. Rumors of true smart home […]