Why do not we see more smart appliances

You're watching a cooking TV show and there's a recipe you like. You save it, and send it to your refrigerator. Your refrigerator logs the recipe and lets you know whether or not you have the groceries available. If you do, you connect to your oven so it knows to preheat immediately. All of this is done without leaving your couch.

That's the future of the connected home, according to Kurt Jovais, the vice president of Samsung's home appliance division. He predicts we'll see a proliferation of connected smart appliances within two to three years.

However, the home appliance market isn't exactly noted for its cutting-edge innovation — the models simply don't change very often. They're built to age.

Take a washing machine, for example. A 20-year-old model will function fairly similarly to its modern counterpart: It gets clothes clean. Compare that to, say, the cellphone, a crowded technological landscape obsessed with making the Next Big Thing.

Legacy home appliance companies are the old guards of the technology world Legacy home appliance companies are the old guards of the technology world: respectable businesses with reliable products everybody needs.

But is it time to shake up the home appliance field? While innovation has improved functionality and design, comparatively, the arena hasn't been nearly as transformed by the "Internet of things."

"Smart and connected appliances are certainly an option and in demand for certain individuals and lifestyles, but our appliances are designed for different and specific consumer needs," Heather Jones tells Mashable. Jones is the senior brand manager for Maytag, a legacy home appliance company founded in 1893.

The Classics

Maytag has long been a sturdy, familiar name in the home appliance arena. Its line of washing machines was introduced in 1907, and the company later branched out into other parts of the home, with refrigerators, ovens and microwaves. It's owned by the Whirlpool Corporation, a multi-billion dollar company that has other home appliance brands, like KitchenAid and Jenn-Air.

While the company values products that are cutting edge, Maytag’s team isn’t attempting to foray deeply into the realm of the connected home. “Dependability” is a word that comes up a lot. The technology it prioritizes is internal — upcoming projects include high-pressure spray jets for dishwashers and flat impellers for washing machines.

Essentially, what good is a smart dishwasher if your cups and plates come out dirty?

The Newcomers

A closeup of the touchscreen on Samsung's refrigerator with apps and Wi-Fi.

A 100-year-old name is powerful, but it isn't always as tempting as the flashy newcomer. Enter Samsung.

The well-known powerhouse (not young by any means, founded in 1938 as an electronic company) specializes in smartphones, TVs, computers and beyond, but has recently tapped the smart home arena. Jovais says the company "didn’t really get our feet under a ledge until 2008."

Their first major eye-catching, connected creation? A smart refrigerator featuring Wi-Fi, an LCD touchscreen and specialized apps. You can tweet on it. You can display family photos. You can play music from Pandora. And you can still rummage inside if you feel like a sandwich. It marries Samsung's electronic know-how and more recently established home presence.

"It’s not just about making a dependable product," Jovais maintains. It's about high-performance products that look great and people are proud to own. "And that’s why Samsung is the fastest growing brand in home appliances, and legacy brands are not."

It's pretty and has lots of fun bells and whistles, but is this fridge a game-changer? The clever creation (though not the first of its kind), which has gone through a few redesigns, has received mostly positive reviews. Consumer Report placed two Samsung products on its list of the "Best Refrigerators of 2013." However, neither honored the smart product.

In the end, it always comes back to whether or not the fridge is good at keeping food organized and cool.

"The evolution of home appliances is always going to be first and foremost about [if] we actually deliver on making consumers’ lives easier," Jovais says.

Perhaps conquering the smart corner of the home appliance world needs to come from a niche company. Take Nest, the smart thermostat and smoke detector company recently acquired by Google for $3.2 billion. A solid starting point and a trumpet call of things to come, Nest is a budding home appliance brand that makes smart tech.

Designed by Tony Fadell, who was a longtime Apple executive and is considered one of the "fathers of the iPod," the Nest thermostat appears to be a slow-burning revolutionary tool. If it wasn't, Google wouldn't be out of a few billion bucks.

These home design innovations will surely prod legacy companies to step up to the technological plate, but they don't seem to be rushing. In comparison to a 100-year-old empire, a company like Nest is just a lone gladiator.

To change or not to change

"Our consumers are seeking products uniquely different from 'smart' home appliances," Jones says.

Instead, Maytag is boosting its product line and vamping up its image. Rebranding is key to the company, which changed its slogan five years ago from "Built strong to last" to "What's inside matters."

They also introduced a new "Maytag man," replacing the original goofy mascot with a ruggedly handsome plumber who "represents the human embodiment of our dependable machines."

On the other hand, legacy companies like Electrolux, founded in 1919, are gently elbowing their way among smart home contemporaries.

"We absolutely see an increased interest in connected appliances, corresponding to the growing use of smartphones and the use of the Internet of things-related products," says Jan Brockmann, the company's chief technology officer.

Brockman says consumers should expect to see "a number of connected appliances launched by Electrolux this year." The company also hosts the Electrolux Design Lab Competition. It encourages students to submit daring designs in home innovation. Naturally, students submit a fair share of smart product inventions. One of last year's semifinalists shared the Kitchen Hub, which envisioned a connected kitchen that helped users eat healthier, grocery shop online and keep digital tabs on food expiration dates.

This all shows an interest in forward-thinking home design, but in the end they're mostly just ideas. Electrolux knows the importance of smart appliances, but also sees the field moving at a slower pace when it comes to buying big items.

"Consumers are relatively conservative — after all, you typically purchase a major appliance to last at least 10 years," Brockman says. "We have yet to see strong competitive pressure in that area because of this development."

Despite the prevalence of connected products, the uber-smart home is a little further in the distance. For all three companies, the core sentiment remained the same: efficiently getting the chore done is the most important element of a home appliance.