IKEA’s third smart home hub is poised to launch, based on an FCC filing. There’s no question about it, as it’s literally referred to as a “Hub for smart products.” That leaves me wondering what role the IKEA Brandhake will play alongside the Dirigera, as I highly doubt IKEA’s relatively new and capable smart home gateway will be replaced anytime soon.
Due to the Brandhake’s small form factor, modest 5V USB power requirements, and what appears to be a focus on low-power networking (Zigbee and Thread both confirmed), this could slot into IKEA’s growing smart home lineup as a network bridge or extender, with Thread border-router capabilities.
But there’s another intriguing hub possibility: Per reddit chatter, does IKEA intend to round out its smart home offerings by venturing into home safety like connected smoke detectors or listeners, given reference to the historic Swedish “brandhake” firefighting tool?
