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Zonoff helps Staples step into the smart home

Staples Connect will launch supporting perhaps the largest curated ecosystem of smart home devices.

Katie Pilkington Associate Editor / Reviews - Appliances
Katie is a writer, a humor blogger, a Vietnam War historian, and an avid cook. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is hard at work on her first novel. When she's not writing about tech, she's reading about armored cavalry units in Vietnam, or teaching her labradoodle, Lola, to overcome her lack of opposable thumbs.
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Katie Pilkington
2 min read
Watch this: Staples and Zonoff are now announcing large-scale expansion at this year's CES.

With great home automation comes the potential for great fatigue, stemming from different brands of devices each requiring different hubs and apps. Smart home platform-provider Zonoff announced a partnership with Staples last year to offer a solution that problem with the Staples Connect home automation kit. The initial announcement declared support for several smart home device brands, provided they transmitted over Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, or the Lutron Clear Connect wireless standard. Staples and Zonoff are now announcing large-scale expansion at this year's CES.

Plans include new partnerships with ecosystem devices like Goji smart locks, Koubachi garden sensors, and Radio Thermostats' Wi-Fi-connected products. The duo also announced that the Connect will soon support ZigBee, Bluetooth, and Insteon-based products. Frosting the cake, you can experience the platform first-hand at a new in-store display in Manhattan.
The Staples Connect smart home hub, designed by Zonoff. Staples

Tacked onto the list of existing partners, such as Philips, Honeywell, GE, and Linksys, both the expanded smart home product support and the strong retail presence give Staples Connect and the Zonoff technology inside it a strong competitive message next to competing hubs like Revolv and SmartThings. The race to support crucial smart devices and rule over retail will likely become a theme in smart home news this year.

Among other announcements just this week, Revolv said its eponymous hub will be available for purchase the Home Depot, Lowe's expanded its own Iris home automation kit, and SmartThings demonstrated an entire connected home, with new support for Philips Hue bulbs, the Jawbone Up fitness tracking wristband, and Belkin's WeMo devices.