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The smart home market will only grow if devices can talk to each other, said Kevin Meagher, Lowe’s VP and GM of their Smart Home division, at Gigaom’s Structure Connect conference on Tuesday. “We believe fiercely in open standards. Everyone needs to open up their APIs,” noted Meagher, who was joined on stage by Joanne Domeniconi, co-founder of The Grommet.

Lowe’s is one of the last bastions of the brick and mortar retailers that are selling smart home devices and partnering with smart home vendors. Because Lowe’s moves so much product it can actually help set and influence standards. But Meagher said Lowe’s tells its partners and vendors that whatever standard they choose, just pick an open standard.

There aren’t many advantages left for brick and mortar stores over online stores, noted Meagher, but if all of the smart home devices that Lowe’s sells can talk to each and connect, it will make the emergence and management of the market that much easier.

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Photo by Jakub Mosur