With Matter and Thread, the smart home is experiencing a new start, and an upswing. We take a look back at Apple’s history in the smart home and where things stand now.
Apple users know the feeling: with most products, everything runs like clockwork. The iPhone? Close to perfect. The Mac? Has been running for years. AirPods? Magical. But with Apple’s HomeKit smart home system, things turned out differently. What Apple announced in 2014 as a revolution in the connected home developed over the years into a story of missed opportunities and technical challenges.
Craig Federighi’s presentation at WWDC 2014 sounded promising: A unified system, deeply integrated into the iPhone, secure and private. “Hey Siri, I’m home,” and the lights would come on, the heating would turn on, and your favorite music would play. The reality was more complicated. While Amazon quickly gained market share with Alexa and Google with the Assistant, HomeKit and Siri struggled with teething troubles. The list of compatible devices grew slowly, prices were often significantly higher than the competition, and reliability fluctuated depending on the setup.The structural challenges
Right from the start, HomeKit struggled with structural problems. Apple’s high security standards—normally a selling point—suddenly became a hurdle. Each manufacturer had to install a special “Made for iPhone” chip in their devices to handle authentication. These chips not only made the products more expensive, they also made development more complex.
While a manufacturer could launch a new product for Alexa on the market within weeks, HomeKit certification took much longer. The result was understandable: Many manufacturers were hesitant to support HomeKit, and prices were higher. A smart socket with HomeKit support typically cost 30 to 40 dollars, while comparable models without HomeKit were available for 15 to 20 dollars. The difference wasn’t always extreme, but noticeable enough to deter many potential buyers.
Apple introduced software authentication in 2017. Manufacturers were now able to dispense with the MFi chip and deliver HomeKit support via a software update. However, many promised updates were delayed or did not work optimally. “No response” became a frequent, albeit not universal, error message in the Home app.
