What's special about Apple Homekit?

[jkmonroe]

There are almost 1 BILLION iOS devices; so this effort is anything but miniscule.

 

[pvrfan]

Indeed.  To pick a nit, one must be running iOS 8, which is currently at 81% adoption (April 27, 2015):
 
https://developer.apple.com/support/appstore/
 
So, to be conservative, the current potential user base for HomeKit is at least 700,000,000 devices.    Per the quarterly results released yesterday, they sold 61 million iPhones in the last 3 months...in their traditionally _slow_ quarter.  
 
What's the user base of CQC?  CastleOS?
 
Craig

 

[Frunple]

You're talking devices, I'm talking people. How many people have 3, or even more, idevices???
It's really not as big a market as you think.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Ultimately the limiting factor for Homekit will be the same as it is for any such system, which is the devices supported. It doesn't matter if you support thousands of devices (and it'll likely be a long time before Homekit does), if you don't support one specific thing that the user wants, they won't be much interested. It's amazing how little people will care for the hundreds of things that an automation system will do, just because it doesn't support one particular thing that they are obsessed about.
 
So you have a Hue system, and it can be controlled via Homekit on your phone. But, of course they already have an app probably that allows it to be controlled on your phone, and you don't need Homekit to do it. Maybe you play with it and get it working with your Hue system, then you wonder, will it support my projector, my A/V receiver, my media player, my sprinkler system? No, it won't. Are all those companies going to suddenly put Apple's chips in their systems? Not for a long time.
 
So, what does it really gain Apple if you are using Homekit on your phone to control your Hue lights, but you have 25 other devices in your home that it has no understanding of? And what does that mean for Homekit's 'adoption'? Is that really adoption? And, if it's not oriented towards customization, i.e. it's just a way to browse and manually control devices, but every product (without any need for Homekit) already has an app that essentially does the same thing, and often providing more access to more product specific features, is there really that big a reason to use Homekit? When Denon, say, can provide a simple protocol that works with every automation system out there, and can provide an app for those folks who just want to control it directly, what real benefit to them is there to go through the trouble of engineering homekit support into their gear? If it was a software protocol, then yeh. But hardware is a whole different thing.
 
When you come at it from that perspective, the number of iOS users means nothing. Those companies are already going to have easy access to those same iOS customers anyway, via a custom app, and can still expose the same API to all the other folks out there (who aren't Apple based) who want to control their gear.
 
And, if as a practical matter, it requires that you have an AppleTV or some other non-phone device, to really get the real benefits, then that lowers the head count substantially as well.

 

[Frunple]

Not to mention, how many of them billions sold are people upgrading from an older device?? So you add billions, but essentially, you're taking away billions also.
People love to spew numbers. It's called marketing.... it's never gonna be AGAINST the company doing the research.

 

[LeoS]

Does it really matter?? The only people that are gonna use Homekit, or even care about it, are the Apple faithful. Minuscule part of the market.

 
Are you serious? They have the numbers; that can drive down product cost by a huge margin (I didn't say price), the huge distribution channel, the lowered barrier of entry (easy app, easy setup, simple config) and all that could grow the segment. Not ours, but the HA market in general.

 

[NeverDie]

Are you serious? They have the numbers; that can drive down product cost by a huge margin (I didn't say price), the huge distribution channel, the lowered barrier of entry (easy app, easy setup, simple config) and all that could grow the segment. Not ours, but the HA market in general.

That's why I was hoping Apple might also develop its own light switches and dimmers, from the bottom up, rather than just riding on top of what's currently out there.  You know, finally do it right once and for all.  However, I'm not reading anything which suggests Apple has plans to do that.  

 

[jkmonroe]

Not to mention, how many of them billions sold are people upgrading from an older device?? So you add billions, but essentially, you're taking away billions also.
People love to spew numbers. It's called marketing.... it's never gonna be AGAINST the company doing the research.

 
This is silly.  The upgraded devices don't just magically disappear - sure, some will get tossed and others broken, but they change hands to other family members, friends, sold on Craigslist and eBay, traded in and shipped overseas, etc.  

 

[Frunple]

Are you serious? They have the numbers; that can drive down product cost by a huge margin (I didn't say price), the huge distribution channel, the lowered barrier of entry (easy app, easy setup, simple config) and all that could grow the segment. Not ours, but the HA market in general.

Yes, I am serious.

 

[Frunple]

This is silly.  The upgraded devices don't just magically disappear - sure, some will get tossed and others broken, but they change hands to other family members, friends, sold on Craigslist and eBay, traded in and shipped overseas, etc.  

They absolutely DO just "magically disappear" as you put it.
How many iphone 3's do you see around??
Granted, of course some of those phones are handed down, that's obvious. I didn't think we needed to be nitpicking about it but if you want to , ok. How many of those "hand-me-downs" are upgrades to the kids or whoever is getting them?? I bet most. So what happens to moms iphone 3 when her kid upgrades to 6 and gives her his old 5??? 
The point is every manufacturer says "we sold billions!!", but to who? I bet 8 or 9 out of ten are not new buyers, especially when it comes to Apple. People buy their stuff just because it's Apple.

 

[NeverDie]

if you don't support one specific thing that the user wants, they won't be much interested. It's amazing how little people will care for the hundreds of things that an automation system will do, just because it doesn't support one particular thing that they are obsessed about.

Conversely, if there were a system which could guarantee, by some means, that this wouldn't happen, it would gain a lot of converts from both the disenfranchised and those who who want to pick a system where they won't risk ending up like that.

 

[pvrfan]

Ultimately the limiting factor for Homekit will be the same as it is for any such system, which is the devices supported. It doesn't matter if you support thousands of devices (and it'll likely be a long time before Homekit does), if you don't support one specific thing that the user wants, they won't be much interested. It's amazing how little people will care for the hundreds of things that an automation system will do, just because it doesn't support one particular thing that they are obsessed about.
 
So you have a Hue system, and it can be controlled via Homekit on your phone. But, of course they already have an app probably that allows it to be controlled on your phone, and you don't need Homekit to do it. Maybe you play with it and get it working with your Hue system, then you wonder, will it support my projector, my A/V receiver, my media player, my sprinkler system? No, it won't. Are all those companies going to suddenly put Apple's chips in their systems? Not for a long time.
 
So, what does it really gain Apple if you are using Homekit on your phone to control your Hue lights, but you have 25 other devices in your home that it has no understanding of? And what does that mean for Homekit's 'adoption'? Is that really adoption? And, if it's not oriented towards customization, i.e. it's just a way to browse and manually control devices, but every product (without any need for Homekit) already has an app that essentially does the same thing, and often providing more access to more product specific features, is there really that big a reason to use Homekit? When Denon, say, can provide a simple protocol that works with every automation system out there, and can provide an app for those folks who just want to control it directly, what real benefit to them is there to go through the trouble of engineering homekit support into their gear? If it was a software protocol, then yeh. But hardware is a whole different thing.
 
When you come at it from that perspective, the number of iOS users means nothing. Those companies are already going to have easy access to those same iOS customers anyway, via a custom app, and can still expose the same API to all the other folks out there (who aren't Apple based) who want to control their gear.
 
And, if as a practical matter, it requires that you have an AppleTV or some other non-phone device, to really get the real benefits, then that lowers the head count substantially as well.

 
1) Homekit gives you Siri voice control.  It also has timer triggers and the design (which is still only pre-release) clearly is set up for other types of triggers.  But Siri is the sexy selling feature that will distinguish Homekit devices.
 
2) I would turn your argument around concerning adoption. Now, someone wanting to dabble in home automation has to buy and configure either a hardware device or software package (such as CQC) and have a computer to run it on.  Either way, your first automated device costs a LOT in terms of money and time.  (Isn't 'complicated setup' the number one complaint of new CQC users?)  Since Homekit is already on your iOS 8 iPhone or iPad, your first automated device costs whatever your first device costs.  I think this is a huge plus for HomeKit and will bring in users that would NEVER have considered home automation, otherwise.  Start with one simple thing for a few bucks, add something else and see how they work together, ...
 
3) Apple TV, as far as is known now, is only required for remote access.  It is not a hub in the sense of other HA hubs now on the market.  More like a proxy that is always on and in the home.  Without it, HomeKit works as long as your iOS device is connected to your home network (well, or BLE range for those devices).  Plus, the Apple TV does a lot of other stuff in an Apple-centric household.  At $69, they are a useful and painless purchase.  Most people think an updated version is going to be release at WWDC in June.  And if you have an Apple TV, that is one more advantage of HomeKit over most app-controlled devices--secure remote access from anywhere on the Internet.
 
Craig

 

[pvrfan]

They absolutely DO just "magically disappear" as you put it.
How many iphone 3's do you see around??
Granted, of course some of those phones are handed down, that's obvious. I didn't think we needed to be nitpicking about it but if you want to , ok. How many of those "hand-me-downs" are upgrades to the kids or whoever is getting them?? I bet most. So what happens to moms iphone 3 when her kid upgrades to 6 and gives her his old 5??? 
The point is every manufacturer says "we sold billions!!", but to who? I bet 8 or 9 out of ten are not new buyers, especially when it comes to Apple. People buy their stuff just because it's Apple.

 
Apple gets asked about switchers every quarter.  Here's Tim Cook's answer from this quarter:

We continue to see a higher rate of switchers than we’ve seen in previous cycles. And so we’re extremely excited about that. We also continue to see a reasonable percentage of first-time buyers, particularly in some of the emerging markets. 

http://sixcolors.com/post/2015/04/this-is-tim-apples-ceo-in-his-own-words/
 
As for older models, remember that iOS sales are still growing rapidly.  iPhone unit sales were up 40% (y/y) in the latest quarter to 61 million units [1].  So the number of recent models in use dwarfs the older retired models.  They didn't get that kind of increase selling only to the 'faithful'.
 
And if you're a manufacturer, wouldn't you want to sell into a market where users willingly pay a premium price for what they perceive as a superior device?  No matter how you quibble, there are hundreds of millions of iOS users that have demonstrated that they'll open their wallets to get what they want.  Big market; fat margins.  A marketer's wet dream!
 
[1] http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/q2fy15datasum.pdf << note pdf
 
Craig
(PS Samsung, Google, etc don't even release unit sales.  At least Apple provides _some_ hard numbers.)

 

[Dean Roddey]

Conversely, if there were a system which could guarantee, by some means, that this wouldn't happen, it would gain a lot of converts from both the disenfranchised and those who who want to pick a system where they won't risk ending up like that.

 
But Homekit isn't any more likely to be that system than any other. That would require a massive change in the landscape. I think that people seriously over-estimate Apple's clout at that very large scale. As I said, if a vendor wants to provide access to their product, why limit it to Apple? They can provide an API that they can use in their own phone apps and every other control system can use, and cover a lot more bases without having to deal with incorporating Apple's hardware into their product. So you have one side where you limit yourself to one company (and effectively give them control of you in an important way), and another where you can support any system.

 

[NeverDie]

2) I would turn your argument around concerning adoption. Now, someone wanting to dabble in home automation has to buy and configure either a hardware device or software package (such as CQC) and have a computer to run it on.  Either way, your first automated device costs a LOT in terms of money and time.  (Isn't 'complicated setup' the number one complaint of new CQC users?)  Since Homekit is already on your iOS 8 iPhone or iPad, your first automated device costs whatever your first device costs.  I think this is a huge plus for HomeKit and will bring in users that would NEVER have considered home automation, otherwise.  Start with one simple thing for a few bucks, add something else and see how they work together, ...

First, installed does not equal setup.  Second, to be fair, you're comparing an as-yet unreleased product to one that has been shipping for a while, so are you drawing upon experience or other sources of insight regarding homekit, or is this speculation?.    In short, why are you convinced that the time savings will materialize (not just "might" materialize)?