“Wondering where all the Apple HomeKit products are?” Kieren McCarthy asks for The Register. “Well, here’s an explanation: Apple is forcing internet-of-things companies to fit Apple-certified chips and firmware in their gadgets if they are to work with the HomeKit platform.”
MacDailyNews Take: Good.
“That means, in a lot of cases, engineers must effectively redesign their products to incorporate the mandatory HomeKit chips and firmware, and pass Apple’s strict checklist of requirements, industry sources have told The Register,” McCarthy reports. “Such moves are expensive and time consuming, but ultimately benefit [consumers].”
“Without a certified communications chip, and Apple’s firmware, the device cannot work with the HomeKit system,” McCarthy reports. “Device manufacturers have to go through an entire Apple-controlled process certifying their hardware before they can use the HomeKit system, we’re told. When they are approved, manufacturers receive Cupertino-stamped stickers that identify individual products with an eight-digit number that users have to type into their app to connect the product to their home system. Reflecting Apple’s control-freak tendencies, all data from HomeKit products runs through Apple’s iCloud – so you must use an Apple ID – and manufacturers are not given access to any data gathered from their own customers. Cupertino even has to sign off on the packaging used for the third-party products before they are given HomeKit certification.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Thank Jobs that Apple is a “control freak!”
We Apple users actually expect our products to work.
Don’t launch until it’s all certified to work. A finicky, hit-or-miss, Microsoftian mess is the last thing home automation needs. It would die on the vine. This stuff need to “just work” right out of the box. There’s one chance to get it right. Consumers won’t go for home automation it it isn’t foolproof. Third-party device makers should not be frustrated, they should be exceedingly grateful that Apple is in charge.