I saw that. I’m excited. I previously bought some of their Zigbee motion and contact sensors to use in home assistant directly (using the zigbee skyconnect) because they were designed to use rechargeable AAA batteries and be extremely affordable. They’ve been flawless for the last year.
I haven’t bought any matter over thread devices yet because they’ve always been so much more expensive and didn’t seem worth the extra cost. When I heard Ikea was launching a bunch of new round of matter devices, most using thread, I was still reserved because last I checked, thread meant insanely inflated prices even though it’s still using the same radio base as Bluetooth and zigbee (though thread requires more memory, processing power, and firmware sophistication for it’s IP stack). I know manufacturers are still ramping up production and tooling, which keeps prices higher, but it still did not made economic sense to pay 2x-4x more for thread sensors when Zigbee was working just fine.
But it looks like Ikea is finally changing that! Not only did they update their Zigbee hub to work as a matter bridge so that all their past zigbee devices will work on matter at zigbee prices (phenomenal!), but they are launching new devices directly supporting thread that appear to be reasonable prices finally!!! I might buy another thread controller for home assistant now! While they haven’t released their US pricing yet, their UK pricing says their thread sensors (contact, motion, leak) are only £7, which is about $9.21! And they still use AAA batteries!!! Finally! A reasonable price for thread sensors! And thread smart buttons (~$4 dual button, ~$5 scroll wheel remote, ~$13 smart plug)! And the remotes also use AAA batteries! And finally a reasonably priced CO2 level monitor (~$33), thread bulbs ($5-$12)! Lots of stuff!
Their pricing on all this stuff is insanely disruptive by itself, let alone the fact that they all support matter over thread directly without need of a matter bridge! I’m about to buy hundreds of dollars of these things when they launch in the USA! This is what I’ve been waiting for any company to do!
IKEA is totally going to dominate the smart home with this new matter over thread disruptive price strategy!
I kept trying to tell Wyze that this is exactly what they should do. They long focused on disruptive pricing. They changed the entire smart home market back when smart cameras were commonly $200 for a simple camera with basically no features and required a subscription for functionality. The entire market chased Wyze to add value and lower prices and kept advertising their latest attempted advertised “Wyze Killer” model because Wyze was the one to beat for killer value and affordability. I keep trying to tell Wyze to continue to expand that reputation throughout the entire smart home. I’m glad someone is picking up the mantle to drive this disruption into Matter! I’d hoped it would be Wyze. 
IKEA is about to be all over my house for sensors, remotes, CO2 monitors, bulbs, etc, unless someone else announces good competition before it launches on the USA. At these prices there is no reason for me to avoid thread anymore. Thread is superior, it’s just been too expensive to be worth it. I might even sell off almost all my Zigbee stuff entirely!
I hope this will spur Wyze to follow suit now. IKEA is using the supplier Keetat Industrial Co., Ltd., a Taiwanese OEM that does a lot of ODM and white labeling manufacturing. Wyze could totally reach out to them with a partnership and offer similarly affordable devices that will similarly work with their own ecosystem as well as allow integration with every other major platform. I would highly encourage them to do so. I would also highly encourage Wyze to update all their existing products to work with a “Matter legacy bridge” to convert their existing sensors to work with matter through a bridge just like Ikea did with their stuff.
