The battle for smart home is on the rise again. Can Apple win with HomeKit?

According to foreign media reports on June 5, since Apple officially announced its plan for smart home HomeKit last year, there has been little news about it for a whole year. In the emerging field of smart home, both Apple and other potential competitors need enough time to explore. At present, it is still unknown how far Apple has gone in this field. Next week, the annual Apple Developer Conference WWDC will be held, and Apple is likely to announce their achievements in the field of smart home at that time.

HomeKit Setup

Last year's WWDC presentation was only for iOS developers, but recently Apple updated the information about HomeKit from the perspective of user experience: buy a HomeKit-compatible device, download its related application, and then use the matching code on the iPhone to pair them. Very simple and concise.

Once the pairing is successful, you can control other smart components in your home through Siri or other iOS applications. You can simply tell your iPhone to dim the kitchen ceiling lights, or turn up the temperature in the living room, and so on. This smart home solution is undoubtedly much cheaper than the existing complete solutions on the market. Moreover, you can also purchase and install smart furniture devices of different brands bit by bit to create your own Internet of Things!

But in fact, because many HomeKit-enabled devices in a room need to communicate via WiFi or Bluetooth, you currently need an additional Apple TV to act as a central node, gateway and router. However, there are also reports that the role of Apple TV can be replaced by other devices.

The main function of Apple TV is that you can remotely control your home's smart devices. Users can check the status of HomeKit devices and control them anywhere through the Internet as long as they have an iOS device. According to a recent report by the New York Times, Apple is not in a hurry to show their latest hardware devices next week, so for users who already have Apple TV, their old Apple TV can be competent for HomeKit smart home tasks.

Peripheral devices

Obviously using Apple's HomeKit is a pretty great smart home solution, but once you start to choose peripherals that support HomeKit, things get tricky.

There are currently 13 peripheral devices that claim to support HomeKit, from four manufacturers. These devices include sensors, lights and thermostats, but as of this week, none of them have been released. Frankly speaking, they are not very worth looking forward to. Analyst Gillette said: "I am not optimistic about these products that claim to support HomeKit. People have basically never heard of these manufacturers and brands." It is hard to imagine that most people will decorate their rooms with appliances of brands they have never heard of.

For traditional home appliance manufacturers, embracing HomeKit is not that easy. Because HomeKit is a completely new thing, there is no successful experience to follow. Being the first to try something new is certainly courageous, but in the Western market, the most important thing for a product is its reputation. The smart home company Nest was forced to recall more than 400,000 smoke alarms last year, which is a failed case.

Market Outlook

It is undeniable that the competition in the smart home market is also fierce. But Google is already one year behind Apple, and Amazon has only made a Bluetooth speaker with a hub function so far. Startups such as Wink see HomeKit more as an opportunity than a rival, because making their devices compatible with HomeKit can win millions of potential users faster.

We won’t know who will win the battle for smart home in the next few years, but we can at least conclude that Apple is on the right track. And as soon as next week, we will know how far Apple has gone.

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.