IKEA has been a fan favorite for many years. Stylish and varied home furnishings all for affordable prices? Yes, please! However, it seems as though the company is onto something else as IKEA now want to dominate the smart home market, too.

The Beginning

It appears as though IKEA has been working hard to make a name for itself in the smart home market. The company has already been selling smart lights and outlets for many months. However, they have now announced their latest product to hit the shelves: smart blinds. It seems this is only the beginning of the range for IKEA.

Forming Partnerships

Dominating the smart home market is no easy feat with so many companies already looking to make their mark on it all. However, it’s believed that IKEA could soon be teaming up with the likes of Amazon, Apple, and Google, to name just a few companies. Why? They all create some of the most popular smart speakers on the market.

Looking To The Future

Smart lights and blinds are only the beginning for IKEA’s plan to dominate the smart home market. As well as many business collaborations, it seems the company also has plans to team up with Sonos. This means that it might not be long before IKEA has its own connected speaker that could form the basis of the long-term Future Home Sound project.

Heading Online

That’s not all. IKEA admits that their in-store sales have started to dwindle. Have no fear; the company knows the way forward is to tap into the online market. Many of us love a little internet shopping. With all of these smart home products now on the market, IKEA could soon be competing alongside some of the greats as a result of the move.

Kitting Out The Home

Many other companies don’t yet have the resources or customers to fully offer a smart home. That’s where IKEA has the upper hand. The stores already provide many of us with our furnishings, meaning that creating smart home options could soon have many of us upgrading our houses with one of our favorite brands.

IKEA has been busy carving a name for themselves over the years. However, it might soon be time for them to hold a brand new title as the leaders of the smart home market.

She started off as an undercover agent trying to prove that there was some wrongdoing happening in the CSI lab. Though by the end of her stint, she couldn’t prove anything and, in fact, joined the team.

From there, she used her skills to really bring a lot to the CSI Miami team and showed her crime-fighting and solving skills. And she did this for several seasons.

Disheveled and not at all imposing, Frank Columbo solved crimes for the LAPD homicide department. Almost looking like an incompetent and often bumbling detective, Peter Falk as Columbo was easily one of the best investigators on TV for his time.

The trick was that underneath all that bumbling and incompetence was a genuinely good detective that always got his man. Along with his crime-solving skills, we all remember him for one other thing – that classic tan overcoat.

Across the pond, they have created some pretty good investigators as well. One of the best, though, was played by the incomparable Helen Mirren. For seven series (that’s seven seasons in the US), Detective Chief Jane Tennison brought her no-nonsense British flare to crime-solving.

Not only did Tennison have to fight crime, but she had to find a way to navigate and prove herself to a predominantly male police department.

Ziva David may have started as a liaison officer from the Israeli Mossad, but she became part of the team just like someone that was hired for the position. Using the skills she garnered in her service in the Israeli services, she has worked her way up to major crimes.

For a little more than seven seasons, she brought a different viewpoint to the NCIS team. Her passion and dedication to solving the crime made her one of the best onscreen investigators.

One of the many Law & Order spin-offs gave us one of the longest-lasting TV investigators, Olivia Benson. A cop who took the evils that had been done to her in her youth and turned it into her calling.

Through hard work and passion, she spends her time trying to solve the crime to be the voice of the victims. The subject matter is tough, but with the talented Mariska Hargitay as the person behind the character, we all make it through.

James Garner played the role of Jim Rockford and brought a certain level of swag to the role. That definitely played a role in the staying power of the detective. But what made the character one of the best investigators was the way he liked to solve his crimes.

Rockford specialized in cold cases and insurance scams, and when things got hairy, he preferred to talk it out rather than fighting it out.

As an important part of the Criminal Minds team for eleven seasons, Derek Morgan worked tirelessly to bring criminals to justice. Having worked with the team as both a special agent and unit chief, he brought a lot to the table.

Played by Shemar Moore, Derek Morgan was a specialist in explosives, fixations, and obsessive behaviors. His ability to read a room made him one of the best agents on the team.

Sometimes it takes great AI and three detectives to make up an effective crime-solving team. That is what the ’70s delivered us in the guise of the Angels… Charlie’s Angels, that is. These three police officers (which changed throughout the run) were scoffed at because they were women.

But Charlie saw the potential in them to solve crimes and look good doing it. Even with the cheesy scripts and acting, the show still delivers one of the best detective groups of all time.

In the ’70s, there were many great detective shows, and one of those was Theo Kojak, played by Telly Savalas. A cop who was honest and fair but willing to step outside the rules just a bit if he needs to get justice for the victims.

But maybe the most iconic thing that we all remember about this amazing detective was his pension for lollipops and his catchphrase “Who Loves Ya, Baby?”

Joining a team that has been together for years is hard, and when Emily Prentiss joined, she felt like an outsider. But it didn’t take long for her level-headedness and attention to detail to win the team over.

Once she had the backing of the team, she could show how passionate she was about solving crimes. She is a team member and leader who will do anything for the team, making her a great agent.

Lawyers don’t usually get as invested in their client’s investigation as Perry Mason does. Played by Raymond Burr (though a new reboot of the series is out now), he’s a lawyer who fights hard for his clients.

That translates to him becoming a detective as well as their lawyer. Through deduction and hard work, the lawyer finds the answers and a way to bring in a win for his client.

She may not look like at first, but Abby Sciuto is one of the best forensic scientists the NCIS has. Her gothic style is paired with a determined but loving personality. Being a forensic scientist, she never waivers no matter what she is looking at.

Bringing her dedication and brilliant mind to the team, she is often at the crux of the crime-solving. In fact, her brilliance is often the key thing that needs to put the pieces together.

Have you ever looked at your sweet little Grandma and thought, “I bet she could be one heck of an amateur sleuth?” No, well, maybe you should; after all, Miss Marple does it. A character created in books first, many people have brought Agatha Christie’s character to life.

This elderly spinster spends her downtime playing detective, using her remarkable wits to solve whatever crimes occur when she is around.

Lt. Horatio Caine is the supervisor during the day at the crime lab in Miami. Before this, he was a forensic analyst and a bomb squad officer. All of this experience is combined to allow him a vast knowledge base, making him a great investigator.

His intense personality wraps a heart of gold and passion for bringing people to justice when they have committed a major crime.

Jack Bauer is someone you want to call your friend. He will go out of the way, even putting his own life in danger to save you. At least that is what he did time and time again, all within a 24-hour time frame.

Portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer saves the country and the world more than once. He was an undercover agent and leader of the CTU, an agency charged with thwarting terrorist activities both outside and inside the country.

You don’t need a badge to be a good investigator. All you need is a passion and determination to put the bad guys away. That is what Joe Mannix had. A vet who returned home to use his skills to hunt down wrongdoers played by Mike Connors.

Mannix was faced with people who turned into enemies along the way, but he always stayed calm and did the right thing.

Saddled with a mystery writer as a consultant, Detective Kate Beckett has a lot on her plate. But that doesn’t stop her from wanting to solve crimes. Starting her initial career wanting to be a lawyer, but because of a tragic event, she instead decided she wanted to solve the crime on the ground.

The detective, played by Stana Katic, found her desire when her mother was taken from her through nefarious means. This desire to find her, and the person who took her mother, drove her to the job.

This former Navy Seal joined the NCIS team bringing with him a strong sense of duty and an almost indignation when a crime is committed. This intense passion and desire to see justice fulfilled is what drives him to do whatever needs to be done to solve the crime.

This tough guy who also has a big heart is portrayed perfectly by the iconic rapper turned actor, LL Cool J.

Being the only homicide detective in Philly meant that Lilly Rush had to be one of those tough and no-nonsense investigators. But that suited the cold case department very well as this made her push harder to get to the bottom of the crime and the case itself.

Dedicated and driven to prove herself, the detective played by Kathryn Morris, gets the job done every time, which makes her a great TV investigator.

If you are looking for the good old fashioned cowboy sheriff, then Walt Longmire is the right investigator for you. The detective is very introspective and focused when it comes to crimes.

He also is fair and never shows any prejudice even in the face of serious division in his community. This gives him an uncanny ability to find the truth, which is expertly portrayed by the Australian actor Robert Taylor.

Ben Matlock, like Perry Mason, is not just your typical country lawyer. He has an affinity for taking challenging clients and then becoming devoted to finding the truth. This often takes him outside the courtroom.

Once he has discovered the truth, though, he gets in that courtroom and provides a big reveal that typically ends with his client becoming exonerated of the crimes they are accused of and the right party receiving just desserts.

The founder and chief of the Hawaii Five-0 Task Force, Steve McGarrett, is an ex-Navy Seal who has a strong sense of duty and morals. He is a regimented character, still sticking to many of the habits he built in the service.

This keeps him fit and ready to take on whatever bad guys want to bring. He is dedicated and passionate about making sure everyone that commits a crime gets what they deserve.

Just because they don’t investigate everyday crimes doesn’t mean that they aren’t two of the best TV investigators ever to grace the small screen. In fact, the dynamic duo of Mulder and Scully spent 11 years figuring out if the truth was really out there.

The open-minded Mulder and the logical Scully balanced each other, which made them a great team. Even in the end, though, they may have solved many crimes, but the truth is still unknown.

In total, the gritty cops show Dragnet was on television for eight seasons. Though there was a break in the airing from 1959 to 1967, the idealistic and hard-knock Joe Friday has left his mark on crime television.

Filmed in the noir style, Joe Friday narrates over the top of the episode giving insight into the case and his inner thoughts. This rule was made so popular in part due to the talents of Jack Webb. That and the catchphrases as well as the well-written scripts.

In the 90s, it was all about cop shows, and one of those was NYPD Blue. But the show wouldn’t have been the same without the hard-nosed and somewhat prejudiced Andy Sipowicz.

Though his partners may have changed, he still stuck to the grind of being a better person and solving crimes to keep the streets of New York City safe. In the end, we all loved him even if, in the beginning, we wanted to punch him in the eye.

Teresa Lisbon is a former agent for the CBI and joins the CBI, where she meets Patrick Jane on The Mentalist. She is a smart and capable woman in a field where it is primarily a man’s world. But that doesn’t stop her from using her intelligence and wit to solve crimes.

She is a courageous woman who is willing to give her life for her team, and that, coupled with her passion for solving crime, makes her a great detective.

Though she may not be out in the field as much as the rest of the team, Penelope Garcia is a vital part of the team on Criminal Minds. A technical analyst for the team, she is responsible for going through the technical pieces and has the unenviable job of watching some pretty disturbing things.

Her emotional reaction to this is very evident, and though she may wear her heart on her sleeve, she still works through it to get the team the information needed to bring the perps to justice.

Law and Order is one of those shows that just won’t quit. Having spurred many spin-offs from the original, few investigators on any of the shows could take the place of the incomparable Lennie Briscoe played by Jerry Orbach.

The detective had seen and been through a lot, but even with that, he still brought his sense of humor to work and used it to get through some pretty intense investigations coming out on top every time.

Okay, solving crimes is hard, but when suffering from a severe case of OCD, social anxiety, and a whole slew of phobias, that difficulty goes up by tenfold. But that is what Adrian Monk, played by Tony Shalhoub, did for seasons.

Even with all that, the detective, along with his friends, struggled to solve cases every week. His attention to detail and all his idiosyncrasies helped him figure out who did it every time.

Angie Harmon brings this brash and opinionated detective to life in the show The Rizzoli and Isles. For seven seasons, she and her doctor friend worked together to solve crimes. Her doggedly determined outlook when it came to crimes allowed her to solve some pretty big crimes.

The friendship helped her, in the end, to become a better cop, and eventually, she moved on to help teach others how to be a good cop at the FBI academy.

There are a lot of reasons that BBC’s Luther leaves an impression. Not only is there the fact that he is portrayed by the talented and handsome Idris Elba, but because he is a very complicated character.

He is passionate about his job and good at it but doesn’t like to use guns. Instead, he lets his anger rage, and he does everything he can to bring his collar in, even if it’s a little outside of the books.

Okay, so they weren’t live-action detectives, but these young detectives seem to us they have a pretty good solve rate. The Scooby-Do Gang used their collective gifts to solve dastardly capers every week.

Stumbling into crimes, they had to fight monsters or, at least old man Smithers in a mask, to solve the weekly wrongdoings. Of course, there were some crazy antics and a few really weird sandwiches before they could do that.

Twin Peaks was so good that they brought it back years later. Part of the reason it was so good was the character played by Kyle MacLachlan. The quirky agent not only has pie and coffee in his mind but also uniquely solves crimes.

He had clues delivered to him in his dreams. This made for an interesting and almost otherworldly ability to get the bad guys.

Sure Nancy Drew was fun, but Veronica Mars was cool. The popular girl in school found a love for solving crimes and decided to help her dad out. Of course, this all starts with the untimely demise of her best friend.

Veronica was played by the very talented Kristen Bell. Much like the Scooby-Do Gang, she seemed to solve her mysteries every week and did so with a sassy and quirky attitude.

Who wouldn’t want to retire to the Hawaiian islands, especially if you used to be around water like the ex-Navy Seal Thomas Magnum? In the ’80s, not only because of the lavish lifestyle and that wicked mustache, Magnum P.I. was the man.

Living on a massive estate, he and his crew spent their time racing around the islands solving crimes. Of course, the role wouldn’t have been the same without Tom Selleck and his cool vibe.

This ex-Marine wanted to continue serving the citizens of the country, and so he took his knowledge and joined the NCIS in Washington D.C. Leroy Jethro Gibbs, or mostly known as Gibbs, is a true military man, believing that his team is like his family.

The habit garnered in the military also served Gibbs well when trying to bring the bad guys in, making him a great investigator. Mark Harmon portrays this character to perfection and has made the character memorable.

In the ’80s, if the mystery writer Jessica Fletcher came to town, you were sure to have some sort of murder mystery crop up. It seemed like they followed her everywhere. But, no worry, because she was often a lot smarter than the local police.

The retired teacher played the clueless old lady, but she was observant and would soon have the crime solved. And she would relay the sequence of events delightfully with a British accent and a smile.

Though not a cop, Rick Castle was definitely one of the best TV investigators of all time. Riding along as a consultant for the NYPD with his partner, Kate Beckett, the crime author solved cases for eight seasons.

Brought to life by the fabulous Nathan Fillion, Rick Castle was able to have a lovable and often comedic style for solving crimes. That is why so many people loved the show and the character.

A forensic anthropologist for the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington, Temperance Brennan, called Bones by her FBI partner, is not just a lab gal. She gets out there with her partner Booth to solve crimes. Though the magic really does happen when she gets back to the lab.

There she uses her deductive reasoning and scientific know-how. Though she seems like she is standoffish, her passion does shine through when it comes to crime.

So who else could take the number one spot other than the British sleuth that has been solving crimes on screen and in books for decades? For us, though, we are talking about the recent incarnation played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Taking the deductive reasoning and bringing a modern flair, the British investigator, with a bit of a condescending air, solves crimes that no one else could. Each one potentially leading him closer to his arch-nemesis, Moriarty.