It has been YEARS since Apple announced their HomeKit home automation protocol.
And, unfortunately, as of September 2015, HomeKit remains, for the most part, vaporware.
Best-case, Apple is taking their time to make sure that HomeKit is perfect before it hits the market.
But this delay comes at a price - not only for Apple and HomeKit, but for home automation in general.
I'm guessing that a lot of people out there are in my shoes.
We love the idea of home automation. We even bought a Nest! And installed a MyQ garage door control!
But we don't have the technical chops to create and deploy our own unified solution, and we don't want to invest heavily in a platform that winds up the "loser" in the end.
Apple seemed to put those fears to rest when they announced HomeKit.
Finally, the company that makes things "just work" was going to unify the home automation world.
And then.... nothing.
For 2 years, we've held off on investing in a Nest ecosystem (Protect smoke detectors, primarily), because we wanted to see what Apple had up its sleeve.
Finally, earlier this year, the first HomeKit products hit the market.
But we don't even have the Home app to control them!
Apple, this is NOT a home automation platform. At this point, HomeKit is barely even a rumor of a home automation platform.
And so we continue to wait to see what Apple's plans are.
And in the meantime, home automation remains a niche market -- even though there is an entire unserved market of people who LOVE home automation, and who want to buy!
We aren't going to buy off-brand home automation products, because they're often unreliable or complicated. (Or, like Quirky/Wink, they up an disappear.)
We're waiting for a brand-name platform.
We can't buy Google/Nest products, because they won't be compatible with Apple's ecosystem.
We can't buy Apple HomeKit products, because THEY DO NOT EXIST.
So for now, the market remains in a sort of limbo, in which we wait for Apple's HomeKit to be released, so that it can be judged, and either utilized or ignored.
And, unfortunately, as of September 2015, HomeKit remains, for the most part, vaporware.
Best-case, Apple is taking their time to make sure that HomeKit is perfect before it hits the market.
But this delay comes at a price - not only for Apple and HomeKit, but for home automation in general.
I'm guessing that a lot of people out there are in my shoes.
We love the idea of home automation. We even bought a Nest! And installed a MyQ garage door control!
But we don't have the technical chops to create and deploy our own unified solution, and we don't want to invest heavily in a platform that winds up the "loser" in the end.
Apple seemed to put those fears to rest when they announced HomeKit.
Finally, the company that makes things "just work" was going to unify the home automation world.
And then.... nothing.
For 2 years, we've held off on investing in a Nest ecosystem (Protect smoke detectors, primarily), because we wanted to see what Apple had up its sleeve.
Finally, earlier this year, the first HomeKit products hit the market.
But we don't even have the Home app to control them!
Apple, this is NOT a home automation platform. At this point, HomeKit is barely even a rumor of a home automation platform.
And so we continue to wait to see what Apple's plans are.
And in the meantime, home automation remains a niche market -- even though there is an entire unserved market of people who LOVE home automation, and who want to buy!
We aren't going to buy off-brand home automation products, because they're often unreliable or complicated. (Or, like Quirky/Wink, they up an disappear.)
We're waiting for a brand-name platform.
We can't buy Google/Nest products, because they won't be compatible with Apple's ecosystem.
We can't buy Apple HomeKit products, because THEY DO NOT EXIST.
So for now, the market remains in a sort of limbo, in which we wait for Apple's HomeKit to be released, so that it can be judged, and either utilized or ignored.
Comments
Post a Comment