For more than a decade, Apple has told other companies to build smart home devices for its platform. This week, Apple launched its own. The Apple Home Collection is a lineup of cameras, thermostats, sensors, a smart door lock, and a video doorbell, all codeveloped with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric. They arrive alongside HomeView, Apple’s first smart display.
Even after 12 years of HomeKit, Apple’s smart home ecosystem still feels underdeveloped, especially compared to the competition. Amazon’s and Google’s ecosystems support more products, and both have popular in-house brands: Ring and Nest. Apple had nothing of its own to point customers to as an Apple experience — and now it does.
But why now? And does Apple actually add anything new here, or is this mostly packaging? At Apple’s “Welcome home” event in New York this week, I spoke with Kaiann Drance, vice president of product marketing for home at Apple, about the company’s new approach to the smart home and what this means for Apple’s commitment to Matter, the interoperable open smart home standard it helped found.
Drance says the big reason was the development of the right technologies. The first was Matter, which provided the ecosystem. The second was AI, which brought a more conversational Siri voice assistant. Both were necessary to create a dedicated home device in HomeView. “With the magic of Siri AI, it comes together in a way that we haven’t been able to deliver before,” Drance says. “That’s been a really critical piece of bringing this all together.”
The bigger play is HomeView as a gateway to the smart home.
The bigger play here is HomeView as a gateway to the smart home for Apple’s users. Buy one for playing music, 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 once people try a single smart device and find it easier than they expected, it “unlocks this delightful understanding of what’s possible once you bring these products into the home.” She argues that most people just don’t know what a smart home can do.
She’s not wrong. The biggest barrier to buying smart devices is that people don’t see any value in the products, according to research from Parks Associates. Privacy and security concerns and complexity also rank high, along with cost. While Apple isn’t addressing the cost concern here — the products start at $200 — the other elements are part of its pitch: one-tap setup, your data stays yours, one app to run it all. Apple’s stamp of approval also carries a lot of weight. “People who own Apple products are very, very loyal, and there is a large user base,” says Elizabeth Parks, president and CMO at Parks Associates.
From a choose-your-own adventure to a tailored solution
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 goes together. The Home Collection is more like the chef’s choice, a short list of dishes Apple promises will pair well. Drance says that’s what some customers were asking for. “There is a lot of choice with Matter, and there’s a lot of great products out there,” she says. “But sometimes we do get asked, ‘Hey, what product should I put in the home?’”
Rather than build devices itself, Apple chose to codevelop the lineup with partners that “have their own expertise in the home.” Both have a global footprint and home experience, she says, “LG more so in consumer products, Schneider through home build and home installations.” Drance says it was a ground-up collaboration with Apple bringing “the design aesthetic that would be suitable for the home and suitable to go with our family of products.” The company is also partnering with ADT through Apple retail stores to help people install the devices.
Drance says setup and ease of use were a big focus. “The one-tap setup was really important to make it so easy, having no need for a separate account, no need for a separate app,” she says. “We just wanted that simplicity to be at its core, and of course, the privacy that we’ve developed together with our partners.” She says everything integrates through Apple Home; you don’t need to create an LG or Schneider account, and all data is end-to-end encrypted, so only you can access it.
Drance was clear that the Apple Home Collection isn’t replacing the buffet — the hardware ecosystem that has grown up around Apple Home. “We still have this incredible ecosystem with Matter, and with Works with Apple Home, that is going to remain,” she says. “We know that homes are not a one-size-fits-all solution, so our customers will continue to have that choice, and we remain committed to building that ecosystem as well.”
The hardware mostly backs that up. The lock, thermostats, and sensors are Matter-compatible; the lock supports Aliro and works entirely locally, and every device supports Thread. The exception is the cameras, which use Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video, not Matter. That’s the biggest lock-in. I was surprised Apple didn’t announce Matter camera support. But the Thread radios suggest the hardware might be Matter-ready, and Apple may be waiting for the Matter camera standard to support encrypted uploads, something HKSV already does.
So, what’s the benefit?
Does the Home Collection do anything other Apple Home devices can’t? In theory, no; in practice, yes. “What we’ve done with Apple Home Collection is we’ve added another layer on top of that, that deeper integration,” says Drance. There aren’t features exclusive to the Home Collection; it’s more that Apple is saying all the features will be here. It’s a bit like Google making a Pixel phone to show Android developers what Android can do: Apple’s products come with the full suite of capabilities the platform offers.
“The one-tap setup was really important to make it so easy, having no need for a separate account, no need for a separate app.”
— Kaiann Drance, Apple
According to Apple, setup is as simple as tapping your iPhone to the device, like pairing AirPods, with no extra account or app needed and no scanning required. Every device uses Thread to stay connected if Wi-Fi drops, and Apple says each can update its own network credentials when you change your Wi-Fi. This could address the offline-device problems that plague Apple Home. Everything is end-to-end encrypted, and the cameras keep recording to onboard storage if your Wi-Fi drops.
The devices also support Apple Home features other manufacturers have been slow to adopt. The LG lock is only the third to offer hands-free Home Key unlocking over UWB, and both thermostats work with Apple’s Clean Energy Guidance and Adaptive Temperature, which adjusts around your location and sleep schedule.
At least that’s the promise. We’ll have to test these devices to see how well they deliver.
Together, Apple’s new devices form a polished, cohesive starter kit for the smart home — albeit an expensive one. The cameras, lock, and thermostats cost $200 to $400, and camera history requires an iCloud Plus plan. As Drance said, the smart home isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, so this won’t work for everybody. If you already have a Ring doorbell or Google Nest Hub, this probably isn’t for you. Instead, Apple is trying to guide its existing customers who haven’t bought a video doorbell or smart lock yet down a curated path into the smart home.
However, Apple faces a tougher challenge in the broader market: It’s arriving late. The smart display category is already mature; millions of homes have Echo and Google smart displays. Millions more have Ring or Nest doorbells, neither of which will work with HomeView at launch.
As a smart home platform, Apple Home ranks third in adoption, behind Google, with Amazon holding a big lead, according to Parks Associates research. But customer loyalty to those platforms isn’t guaranteed. Four in five smart-home households would consider switching, Parks says, especially if another platform lets them control everything in one place. “Interoperability will be critical, but the bigger prize is owning the consumer relationship,” she says.
With its Home Collection, Apple isn’t reinventing the smart home; it’s trying to make it easier to get into one.
