Table of Content
Adopting Matter is a product and portfolio investment decision. It can broaden compatibility across major smart home ecosystems and reduce repeated integration work for common controls and status information. The commercial value depends on the product category, customer expectations, installed base, target markets and channels, and how much of the product experience Matter can represent.
That opportunity comes with ongoing responsibilities. Hardware and SDK choices, certification, ecosystem qualification, security, firmware updates, regression testing, customer support, and lifecycle maintenance all contribute to the total commitment. Matter specifications and ecosystem support also evolve on different schedules, making adoption timing part of the strategy.
The resulting portfolio strategy may combine native Matter devices, firmware updates to add Matter support, bridging, or selective adoption across product generations.
Deferring adoption may be appropriate when existing hardware cannot support Matter or when product timing makes adoption in a future product generation more practical. Continuing to support non-Matter architectures may be appropriate where product differentiation, service value, product lifespan, or a weak commercial case make Matter adoption less compelling.
The right path depends on which products gain meaningful customer and commercial value from Matter, how existing products can transition, and what ongoing support the company is prepared to maintain.
Capture Commercial Advantage from Matter
Eligibility across major smart home ecosystems is one source of commercial advantage. Matter gives a product a common way to expose supported controls and status information, which can reduce the need to create separate implementations for the same basic behavior. Each ecosystem still determines which product categories and features it supports, the requirements for its own certification or badge programs, and how supported capabilities appear to users.
Commercial programs can add visibility beyond technical compatibility. Products that complete the applicable ecosystem program requirements may be eligible to use the Works with Apple Home, Works with Google Home, Works with Alexa, or Works with SmartThings marks. SmartThings, for example, provides certified products with catalog placement, purchase links, co-marketing opportunities, and engagement analytics. These programs can strengthen product credibility and discoverability, subject to the requirements and supported categories of each ecosystem.
For partners and channels that value broad compatibility, those signals can reduce uncertainty about how a product fits into the surrounding smart home. Distribution, customer demand, and sales still depend on product-market fit, pricing, quality, and channel execution. Matter creates commercial advantage when interoperability removes a practical barrier to product consideration, integration, or adoption.
Decide Which Products Should Adopt Matter
The commercial case for Matter varies across a connected-product portfolio. It is often clearer for products whose core controls and status information are widely used across smart home ecosystems, such as lighting, plugs, switches, locks, and thermostats. Adoption may require greater selectivity for newer or less uniformly supported categories and capabilities, including cameras, some appliances and energy-management use cases, as well as low-cost sensors and specialized professional products. In these cases, ecosystem maturity, hardware cost, product lifespan, or service value may carry more weight.
The decision depends on customer expectations, current ecosystem support for the category, hardware and firmware readiness, target markets and channels, and whether Matter can expose the functions customers value most. Product lifespan also matters: adding Matter to a device approaching replacement may create less value than introducing it in the next hardware generation.
Long-lived products may justify the ongoing effort required to maintain Matter compatibility over an extended support period. Firmware releases and security patches add regression-testing work and, depending on the scope of the change and applicable program requirements, may trigger Matter recertification, ecosystem-specific revalidation, and additional customer-support work as Matter versions and ecosystems evolve.
The result may be a mixed portfolio. New products can adopt Matter natively where the commercial case is strong, eligible existing products may migrate to Matter through firmware updates, and bridges can preserve access to a valuable installed base. Other products may defer adoption to a future product generation or continue on a non-Matter architecture. This product-by-product approach keeps Matter investment aligned with customer value, market opportunity, and lifecycle cost.
Plan the Installed Base and Portfolio Transition
When products follow different Matter adoption paths, the company needs a transition plan for its installed base. Existing devices represent customer investment, channel commitments, and support obligations, making migration a commercial as well as technical decision.
Eligible products may migrate to Matter through firmware updates when the existing hardware can support the standard and the transition does not impose excessive disruption on customers. Bridges can expose supported functions from Zigbee, Z-Wave, or proprietary devices without replacing every deployed device. When existing hardware cannot support Matter, the company can introduce Matter in a future product generation, allowing replacement to follow the planned upgrade cycle. Products with limited remaining life or a weak commercial case for migration may remain on their existing non-Matter architecture until retirement.
Each transition path changes the timing and distribution of cost. Firmware migration can preserve existing hardware value, but migration steps may include re-pairing, feature-gap decisions, and additional customer support. Bridging can reduce replacement pressure, though it adds a shared component that must remain compatible, secure, and supported. Deferring Matter to a future product generation limits near-term redesign and migration spending while postponing the benefits of interoperability. Products that remain on existing non-Matter architectures preserve customer continuity at the cost of prolonged support and greater validation, documentation, and operational complexity across the mixed portfolio.
A complete transition plan identifies which products migrate through firmware updates, which use bridging, which move to Matter in a future product generation, and which remain on non-Matter architectures until retirement. It also sets expectations for feature availability, migration steps, bridge dependencies, replacement timing, and differences between native and bridged products. A phased approach can preserve installed-base value while concentrating future investment where Matter has the strongest commercial case.
Maintain Product Differentiation and Service Value
Matter standardizes common ways for connected products to expose controls and status information across supported ecosystems, but it does not define the entire product experience. Strong differentiation outside the Matter layer does not make Matter incompatible with the product strategy, but it can affect how much commercial value the company gains from adopting it. Companies should therefore determine which functions benefit from standardized interoperability and which capabilities should remain part of their own product experience.
Differentiation can come from capabilities beyond the functions exposed through Matter, including advanced product features, companion applications, cloud services, analytics, automation, and specialized workflows. These capabilities can give customers reasons to choose one product over another even when both provide similar Matter-based controls through the same ecosystems.
Services can extend that differentiation after the initial product sale. Remote monitoring, diagnostics, automation, data-driven features, professional services, and other connected capabilities can create ongoing value when they address customer needs that Matter does not standardize. The commercial opportunity depends on whether those services solve a meaningful problem and fit the product’s target market and business model.
Matter can therefore serve as an interoperability foundation without becoming the definition of the product. Companies that adopt it should decide deliberately which parts of the product experience to standardize through Matter and where to retain capabilities that strengthen product differentiation, customer relationships, and service value.
Choose the Right Matter Strategy
Matter adoption should follow the economics and requirements of the portfolio rather than a uniform adoption target. Companies can adopt Matter broadly where interoperability creates clear customer and commercial value, use selective adoption where the case varies by product or market, and defer, migrate, bridge, or continue non-Matter architectures where those approaches better protect customer continuity and investment.
The choice should reflect the product’s role in the portfolio, its product lifespan, target markets and channels, hardware and firmware readiness, and the functions customers expect to use across ecosystems. Companies should also consider the ongoing effort required to maintain compatibility, support customers, and sustain differentiated capabilities as Matter and ecosystem requirements evolve.
A portfolio strategy can establish native Matter adoption as a standard foundation for new products while allowing defined exceptions where another path produces better commercial or customer outcomes. This approach gives product teams a consistent basis for evaluating new generations and existing products without requiring every product to follow the same adoption path.
Matter strategy should remain a portfolio decision rather than a one-time implementation choice. As product generations, ecosystem capabilities, customer expectations, and commercial priorities change, companies can revisit where Matter creates enough value to expand adoption, where deferral remains appropriate, where migration or bridging remains appropriate, and where continued non-Matter support still makes sense.
Build and Evolve Matter-Enabled Products
Krasamo helps companies design, develop, migrate, and support IoT products that use Matter alongside existing device, mobile, cloud, and connectivity technologies. Our engineering teams can work across embedded firmware, connected devices, mobile applications, cloud services, and Matter integration to support new product development and the transition of eligible products already in the field.
References
- Connectivity Standards Alliance — Matter
  Matter — Connectivity Standards Alliance - Connectivity Standards Alliance — Certification
  CSA Certification - Apple — Developing apps and accessories for the home
  Apple Home Developer Resources - Google — Works with Google Home Certification
  Works with Google Home Certification - Amazon — Works with Alexa
  Works with Alexa - Samsung SmartThings — Works with SmartThings Certification
  Works with SmartThings Certification
