Controlling all of your home lighting with an app is convenient, but also potentially quite expensive considering you'll need the hardware and the light bulbs to do it. The most well-known name in this area of tech is Philips Hue, but Philips is getting some new Smart Home competition from another very well-known brand in the form of IKEA.
IKEA is launching Trådfri, which is the Swedish word for "wireless." It's actually a complete smart lighting kit, which started slowly rolling out across European countries last October with listings already appearing on the US IKEA website, but they can't be purchased yet.
Trådfri uses the ZigBee Light Link standard allowing a lighting network to be easily setup for your home. A gateway device is connected to the Internet via your router, which then links up to all other Trådfri devices in your home, be they light bulbs, LED panels, lit storage doors, remote controls, or the Trådfri app on your smartphone or tablet.
Once installed, you can control the lighting level of each Trådfri light source using the app or through remote controls. As for cost, the base set including the gateway device, a remote, and two bulbs is $79.99. There's a motion sensor kit including a bulb for $24.99, a dimming kit for $19.99, or individual bulbs for as little as $11.99.
The Verge believes Trådfri will be in stores outside of Sweden by the end of March. Whether that includes the US is unclear, but the fact Trådfri listings already appear on the US website suggests a launch there can't be that far off.