Why is Apple finally making its own smart home devices?

For more than a decade, Apple has told other companies to build smart home devices for its platform. This week, Apple launched its own model. The Apple Home collection is a collection of cameras, thermostats, sensors, smart door locks and video doorbells, all designed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric. They arrive alongside HomeView, […]

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Apple's new smart home lineup promises easier setup, tighter integration, and data privacy. But with fierce competition and steeper prices, can Apple convince more people to adopt its vision of the smart home?

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Apple's home collection is part of the company's first major effort in the smart home category. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Toohey/The Verge

All news from Apple's "Welcome Home" event

He is a senior referee with more than twenty years of experience. He covers smart homes, IoT and connected technologies and has previously written for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC and US News.

Even after 12 years of HomeKit, Apple's smart home ecosystem is still underdeveloped, especially compared to competitors. Amazon's and Google's ecosystems support more products, and both have popular in-house brands: Ring and Nest. AppleHatch didn't have its own thing to introduce customers to as an Apple experience — and now it does.

The new Apple Home suite includes a video doorbell, smart lock, and more

The best feature of Apple's HomeView may be its simplicity

I tried Apple's HomeView smart display

But why now? And is Apple really adding anything new here, or is it mostly packaging? At Apple's "Welcome home" event in New York this week, I spoke with Kaiann Drance, vice president of product marketing for the home at Apple, about the company's new approach to the smart home and what it means for Apple's commitment to Matter, the open, interoperable smart home standard that helped spawn it.

Apple's HomeView is considered as a gateway for people to enter the smart home. Photo by Jennifer Pattison Toohey/The Verge

Drance says a big reason for that was the development of the right technologies. The first was matter, which provided the ecosystem. The second was artificial intelligence, which included a Siri voice assistant. Both were necessary to create a dedicated home device in HomeView. "With the magic of Siri AI, it adds up in a way that we haven't been able to offer before," says Drance. "That was a really critical piece to bring it all together."

HomeView's bigger game is as a gateway to the smart home.

The bigger play here is HomeView as a gateway to the smart home for Apple users. Buy one for music streaming, guided cooking recipes, and checking your calendar, and you might soon want a camera or smart lock to go with it. Drance says they've seen that when people try a smart device and find it easier than they expected, "it opens up a delightful understanding of what's possible when you bring these products into the home." He argues that most people don't know what a smart home can do.

He is not wrong. According to Parks Associates research, the biggest barrier to buying smart devices is that people don't see any value in the products. Privacy and security concerns and complexity also rank high, along with cost. While Apple isn't paying attention to cost concerns here — products start at $200 — other elements are part of its development: one-tap setup, your data stays with you, an app to run it all. Apple's seal of approval also carries a lot of weight. "People who own Apple products are very, very loyal and there's a huge user base," said Elizabeth Parks, president and chief executive officer at Parks Associates.

Several Apple Home Collection products: LG smart door lock, indoor camera and video doorbell, and Schneider Electric thermostat.

From a choose-your-own adventure to a convenient solution

Up until now, Apple Home has been a bit like a buffet: you can pick from any brand that supports HomeKit or Matter and hope it all works out. The Home Collection is more like Chef's Choice, a short list of foods that Apple promises will go well together. Drance says that's what some customers wanted. "There are so many choices when it comes to material, and there are so many great products out there," she says, "but sometimes we get asked, 'Hey, what product should I put in the house?'

Instead of building the devices themselves, Apple decided to develop the suite with partners who "have their own expertise in house." Both have global footprints and domestic experience, he says, "LG more in consumer products, Schneider through home building and home appliances." Drance says it was a ground-breaking collaboration with Apple that "brought a design aesthetic that was right for the home and to go with our family of products." The company also works with ADT through Apple's retail stores to help people install the devices.

"Sometimes we get asked, 'Hey, what product should I put in the house?'

Drance said setup and ease of use were a big focus. "The one-tap setup was really important to make it easy, no need for a separate account, no need for a separate app," he says. "We just wanted that simplicity at its core, and of course the privacy that we've built with our partners." Everything is integrated through Apple Home, he says. You don't need to create an LG or Schneider account, and all data is encrypted, so no one else can access it.

Drance was clear that the Apple Home Collection will not replace Buffett — the hardware ecosystem that has grown up around the Apple Home. "We still have this incredible ecosystem with Material and with Works with Apple Home that's going to stay," he says. We know that homes aren't a one-size-fits-all solution, so our customers will continue to have that choice, and we're committed to building that ecosystem.

More hardware supports it. The lock, thermostat and sensors are compatible with the material. The lock supports Aliro and works completely locally and any device supports Thread. The exception is cameras that use Apple's HomeKit Secure Video, not Matter. This is the biggest lock. I'm surprised Apple didn't announce support for the Matter camera. But the Thread radios suggest that the hardware may be Matter-ready, and that Apple may be waiting for the Matter camera standard to support encrypted uploads, which HKSV currently does.

Does the Home suite do something that other Apple Home devices can't? In theory, no; "What we've done with the Apple Home Collection is we've added another layer to it, that deeper integration," says Drance. There are no exclusive features for the Home collection. It's mostly that Apple says all the features will be here. It's a bit like Google building the Pixel phone to show Android developers what Android can do: Apple products come with the full set of features that the platform offers. At least this is the promise. We need to test these devices to see how well they perform.

"The one-tap setup was really important to make it easy, no need for a separate account, no need for a separate app."

According to Apple, setup is as simple as tapping your iPhone on the device, like pairing AirPods, with no additional accounts or apps required and no scanning required. Each device uses Thread to stay connected if Wi-Fi goes down, and Apple says each can update its network credentials as its Wi-Fi changes. This can fix offline device issues that plague Apple Home. Everything is end-to-end encrypted, and if your Wi-Fi goes down, the cameras record to internal memory.

These devices also support Apple Home features that other manufacturers have been slow to adopt. LG's lock is only the third to offer hands-free home screen unlocking via UWB, and both thermostats work with Apple's Clean Energy Guide and Adaptive Temperature, which adjusts based on your location and sleep schedule.

LG's door lock and video doorbell pair in the Apple Home app so you can unlock the door when you see who's at the door.

Together, Apple's new devices make for a polished and cohesive smart home starter kit — albeit an expensive one. Cameras, locks, and thermostats cost $200-$400, and camera history requires iCloud Plus. As Drance said, the smart home is not a one-size-fits-all solution, so it won't work for everyone. If you already have a Ring or Google Nest Hub, this probably isn't for you. Instead, Apple is trying to steer existing customers who haven't yet purchased a video doorbell or smart lock into a smart home.

Inside the room where the smart home industry still exists is betting on matter

However, Apple faces a tougher challenge in the broader market: It's a latecomer. The smart display category is now mature. Millions of homes have Echo and Google smart displays. Millions of other people have Ring or Nest doorbells, neither of which work with HomeView at launch.

According to Parks Associates research, Apple Home is third in adoption as a smart home platform behind Google, with Amazon leading the way. But customer loyalty to those platforms is not guaranteed. Parks says four out of five smart home households are considering switching, especially if another platform allows them to control everything in one place. "Interactivity will be very important, but the bigger prize is having a relationship with the consumer," he says.

Apple isn't reinventing the smart home with its Home collection. It tries to make it easier to get into one.