IKEA Enters the Smart Home Market with New Lighting System

You know something has gone mainstream when IKEA starts to sell it. And no, I’m not talking about fried onions and cream sauce.

Try smart home products.

Called Trådfri, the internet-connected smart lighting system is the company’s first foray into the home automation market—which is currently dominated by products including Philips Hue and Nest.

At its core, the Trådfri system is connected via Ethernet to a central hub that speaks to all the connected light bulbs in the local Trådfri network. Through the Trådfri remote or smartphone app, a user can adjust or automate the lighting levels across the rooms in their home wirelessly.

The company has even created their own take on a unique puck-like dimmer system that can adjust the lighting with a few flicks of the wrist (assuming it’s real):

At 749 kr— roughly $85.40—the ‘gateway set‘ (a base station, remote, and two dimmable Trådfri bulbs) is priced aggressively against other smart home lighting system competitors-particularly considering that the Trådfri system makes use of the same ZigBee Light Link connection used by the more premium Philips Vue system.

Currently, the system will only be available via the company’s Swedish website, but, like other products that have been beta tested in their own country, expect a refined version of the system worldwide in the not-too-distant future. Find out more over at IKEA.