HomeKit Did Apple miss a big opportunity with HomeKit devices?

[Luba]

I was recently in a Best Buy store after a long while and noticed that front and center in Best Buy is a big section on Smart Home devices. Most are compatible with Alexa and Google only. Few are compatible with Apple HomeKit. I don't think I ever even opened the iOS HomeKit app. But maybe it doesn't matter for us consumers as we just need to install the appropriate iOS app, like for example, Amazon's Ring app. It seems Apple has missed an opportunity, not that they were out competed. It seems Apple chose to not to participate from the very beginning. They could have easily gotten involved with 'nest' because Tony Fadell was one of the founders of nest?? They chose to not develop and be in the WiFi router market.

 

[DynaFXD]

I dunno. I am a neophyte to all of this. But is really seems that, as long as you are in 'one ship', you are probably OK. They all have iOS apps, so you can use your phone to control your connected home. You just don't want to be in a place where you need to have a GE app, Lutron app, Sylvania app, and so on to control all your disparate devices. There are bridges that can pull things under one roof. For example, Lutron's bridge can play with Homekit as well as others. You just want to design your system from the outset so that it is not a hodge podge of various parts. As far as HomeKit, the big advantage, I guess, is that you can control things with voice (Siri). So far, it is fun, but opening an app with sliders and rooms gives just as much a connected home feeling as speaking out "Hey Siri ..." and then waiting for a second or two delay and it gets sorted. Nevertheless, I do try to pick HomeKit compatible parts and you are right in that they do seem to be the hardest to find.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I think Apple missed their opportunity long ago.

 

[parseckadet]

I've never seen anything from Apple to suggest that HomeKit was ever elevated beyond "hobby" status. I do think they missed the boat, but to me it seems like they knew full well that the ship was about to set sail and they just didn't care.