Upcoming smart home standard Matter will face a delayed rollout, with approved devices not expected to land until 2022. 

As detailed in a blog post, the interoperability protocol, which aims to unify the differing connectivity standards used by companies like Apple, Google and Amazon, won't meet its deadline of being in new devices by the end of 2021.

The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) - the organisation that formed Matter - CEO Tobin Richardson noted that the SDK for the upcoming standard is still in development. The certification process by which developers and companies receive authentication for both new and existing hardware is also facing time issues.

Earlier this year, the CSA confirmed that it was still working towards its original goal of having the first Matter-certified devices hitting the market by the end of the year. Now, that won't be happening.

It's possible that we see Matter updates in early 2022 for existing devices, since Richardson indicates that the CSA expects the Matter SDK and formal certification to be open in the first half of the year.

Naturally, though, this means it's also fairly likely that Matter-ready devices from companies like Google, Amazon and the likes won't be here until the second half of the year.

This isn't the first delay to Matter, of course - it initially offered a 2020 release when Matter was in its infancy and known as Project CHIP. That was then revised until 2021, and then again until late 2021. 

With a global pandemic piled on top of the enormous technical challenge of building a fully interoperable smart home standard, these delays perhaps aren't surprising.

However, it does mean that the momentum and progress of the smart home will be delayed with it, and that's inevitably costly, too.