“Apple recently invited reporters to meet a handful of companies announcing new products at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show,” Anthony Ha reports for TechCrunch. “The common theme: All of these products connect to Apple’s HomeKit platform for smart home devices.”
“By integrating with HomeKit, these companies make their products configurable and controllable via Apple devices, specifically through the Home app and Siri,” Ha reports. “Last year, Apple rolled out a new software authentication system, which meant that manufacturers no longer needed to include an MFi chipset to be part of the program.”
“This isn’t a comprehensive list of all the HomeKit-integrated products that will be announced at CES, but it provides a snapshot of what’s coming to the ecosystem in 2019 — smart light switches, door cameras, electrical outlets and more,” Ha reports. “Here they are…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s HomeKit…
Good news about Kasa plugs becoming HomeKit compatible. I’ve got a handful that I’ve added via HomeBridge on my raspberry pi, but native support is always better. When they’re on offer they’re by far the best value of any sort of half decent smart plug.
Way too late to the party and expensive. Will be ignored by most.
That’s what people used to say about the iPod.
https://www.themarysue.com/ipod-2001-ipad-bad-reviews/
The average consumer has zero home automation devices.
Not late at all. If Apple can make is very easy to understand and setup, then the average consumer will buy it.
I disagree about being too late (although it is a little late but not irreversible). Remember many people have iPhones and iPads so will be receptive to an Apple solution. I for one and excited about it because although I have some automation, I was waiting to get into it in a bigger way. I think many of us are at the same spot.
Definitely NOT too late this is all very much in its infancy still but certainly annoyingly late. HomeKit is probably 2 years late in getting to this point and little real enthusiasm has been put into it (or so is the perception) or its twins Siri and Home speakers, despite these three, as others have shown, being important areas primed to add extra business as the iPhone matures and indeed a prime potential platform to expand iPhone and iPad sales in fact. Little to No imagination or manufacturer deal making seems to have taken place since the initial underplayed launch. Now that some panic has set in overall maybe shack even that others no longer come begging to be included on Apples self indulgent terms then maybe some realism is settling in, let’s hope so. What pains me is Apple had all the parts to produce a home assistant device was nailed on by the analysts to make one well before Amazon but failed to see the logic of such a device, then take 2 years to catch up while still avoiding its mainstream, now watch as the opposition produce devices that look just like an iPad to do the job.
Yet still no one at Apple seems to have considered creating a dock for an iPad (ESP the mini) that can enhance its use as a home assistant/control hub to do all and more of what the others do as an extra to actually owning an iPad. Hey that might just have boosted sales of an expensive device when it too plateaued years back. Shows that it’s all about following rather than leading the field these days, safety first to mitigate making a wrong call, milk the existing products with as little effort as possible instead of expanding their capabilities to compensate for higher prices, while making them all work better together in an increasingly single and integrated platform. What would Steve say.
I am disappointed in Apple on this subject. It seems like Apple’s drive to innovate has greatly diminished. Home Automation was Apple’s for the taking, inastead Amazon has taken over Home Automation. I have to admit that Alexa is better than Siri across the board. I was a long time Apple fanboy, but I rely on fewer Apple products today.