Apple CEO Cook rarely reveals his smart home private life throughout the day

Tencent Technology News: Smart home and the Internet of Things are seen as another new technology wave after mobile Internet and smartphones. Currently, companies such as Google , Amazon , Apple , and Samsung Electronics have all made plans. Apple has launched the HomeKit platform and tools in the past, allowing users of Apple devices to control various home appliances and home devices.

Apple released its fourth-quarter earnings report on Tuesday. At the analyst meeting, Apple CEO Cook rarely introduced his smart home life.

According to the American technology news website CNET, the themes of financial analyst meetings are often business development, operating data, and outlook for the next quarter in the previous quarter. However, on that day, Cook suddenly used this meeting to talk about his private life.

Of course, Cook himself uses smart home, so he must use Apple's own products and tools. In this field, Apple's main services include voice assistant Siri and the specially launched smart home development tool HomeKit.

"I personally integrate HomeKit hardware and the Home app into my daily life through the iOS operating system," Cook told analysts. "When I say 'good morning' to Siri, the lights in my room turn on and my coffee maker starts brewing coffee for me."

HomeKit is mainly aimed at external smart home hardware manufacturers, such as electronic door locks, home appliances, doors and windows, etc. Third-party manufacturers can access Apple smartphones through HomeKit, and users can achieve voice control through Siri.

In addition, in the iOS 10 operating system last fall, Apple launched a new software called "Home", which allows users to manage various smart devices in their homes in one stop and make various personalized settings. Apple phone users can add various third-party hardware that complies with the HomeKit specification in this application.

Cook said at the earnings conference: "When I leave home, I just tap my iPhone, all the lights go out, the temperature of the home thermostat automatically drops, and the door locks are automatically closed. When I go home at night, as soon as I approach my house, it will automatically turn on a simpler protection mode. This kind of home automation was unimaginable a few years ago, but now it has been fully realized with iOS and HomeKit."

Cook also did not forget to promote Apple's own technology. He said that Apple is currently ahead of its peers in integrating smart home with a major operating system.

However, it should be pointed out that in the smart home market, data from third-party institutions show that Apple does not have a clear advantage. Among them, Amazon's Alexa voice assistant has performed amazingly and is being used by more manufacturers.

There are already a large number of third-party smart home hardware embedded with Alexa. Although Amazon's smartphone project has failed, the company has launched the innovative smart speaker Echo. Users do not need to open their phones, just speak to the speaker to control home appliances, play songs on demand, and even inquire about the weather.

With the huge success of Echo, many manufacturers such as Google have imitated Amazon to launch smart speaker products. Earlier, there were reports that Apple was also preparing to imitate Amazon's Echo and launch a smart speaker as a smart home control center, but Apple has not disclosed any information about this product.

In the smart home field, Apple's competitor Google has suffered a failure. Google spent billions of dollars to acquire the American thermostat manufacturer Nest, and expected the company to become the main carrier of the smart home business. However, Nest's subsequent development disappointed Google. Its new products were launched slowly, old products had quality failures, and internal management problems occurred, which led to the core founder leaving last year.

The outside world believes that Google's acquisition of Nest was a mistake.

In addition, with the huge success of Amazon Echo, the industry has also seen differences in the development trend of smart homes. Some people believe that the use of simpler smart speakers and voice technology will become the dominant control devices for smart homes, and the process of controlling homes with smartphones will become more complicated, and their status will be weakened.

However, Amazon Alexa is also making progress in the integration of mobile phones. For example, Alexa is embedded in the new mobile phones launched by Huawei.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.