Apple’s smart home strategy has been stuck in neutral for years. While Google and Amazon built massive smart home ecosystems, Apple’s HomeKit limped along with limited device support and clunky interfaces.
Now they’re scrambling to catch up with a new AI smart home hub. Too little, too late.
The rumored 7-inch hub sounds eerily familiar. Amazon’s Echo Show has been around since 2017. Google’s Nest Hub followed in 2018. They’re targeting a launch by end of 2025, which means they’ll be nearly a decade behind the competition.
Apple’s just now figuring out that people want visual interfaces for their smart homes? Transformational stuff.
Their big innovation is supposedly AI-powered automations that learn from user routines. Alexa’s been doing hunches and predictive routines for years. Google Assistant has had similar features forever.
But sure, let Apple Intelligence reinvent the wheel while pretending it’s groundbreaking.
The death of iPad as a HomeKit hub is particularly telling. They’re forcing users to buy new hardware instead of using devices they already own.
Classic Apple move. Meanwhile, competitors let you use practically anything as a hub.
At least they’re finally embracing Matter and Thread protocols. Only took them years to realize that walled gardens don’t work for smart homes. The Thread protocol creates a self-healing mesh network that improves device connectivity and reliability.
People want their devices to work together, not pick sides in ecosystem wars. Who could have predicted that?
The privacy angle is Apple’s only real differentiator. Local processing and on-device AI sound great on paper.
But when your smart home platform barely works with anything, what good is privacy? It’s like having the world’s most secure treehouse that nobody can enter.
Siri improvements can’t come soon enough. The assistant has been a punchline for years while Alexa and Google Assistant actually understood what people were saying.
Adding visual controls and better contextual awareness might help, assuming Apple Intelligence delivers on its promises.
The harsh reality is Apple’s playing catch-up in a market they should have dominated. Their obsession with control and premium pricing left the door wide open for competitors.
Apple’s approach also fails to address the issue of device functionality offline, which remains a critical concern for users who need reliable smart home operations during internet outages.
Now they’re throwing AI at the problem and hoping it sticks. Good luck with that.
