 The Apple HomePod mini. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg For years, Apple Inc. has sold the go-to devices for our pockets, wrists, backpacks and desks. But it has struggled to achieve that kind of success in other key areas: the car, the face and the home. Apple blew billions on a car project that it shut down earlier this year, and the company's Vision Pro hasn't yet proved that a face-worn technology can be a hit. Its home products, meanwhile, have had mixed results. While the HomePod smart speaker and Apple TV set-top box have their fans, both devices trail competitors' products. But now the company is setting out to conquer the smart home with an aggressive new strategy: putting Apple screens and software throughout the house in a way that creates an end-to-end experience. Over the next two years, I expect home hardware to be a top priority for Apple. The push will include developing a new homeOS operating system and smart display, as well as a higher-end robotic tabletop device. The renewed effort follows years of mediocre performance in this category, with Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google taking the lead. One reason Apple has struggled is its focus on making premium products that work in a closed ecosystem. That hasn't been an effective strategy in the smart home, where consumers want equipment that can work with a wide range of other products. For Apple's next slate of home hardware to be successful, it has to support as many accessories as possible — and the company is preparing to do just that. It helped develop a smart home protocol called Matter that allows Amazon, Google and Apple devices to all play nicely together. That's one piece of the foundation. Another is artificial intelligence. The company's goal is to use its new Apple Intelligence platform to offer home automation on steroids, as well as precise control of applications, devices and media. A core piece of Apple Intelligence is a new App Intents system that allows the Siri digital assistant to manipulate features inside apps. AI also will govern how the products work. The tabletop device will use AI to understand its surrounding environment so it can sense who is looking at the screen, what people are doing and who is speaking. That capability could make the device compelling — and it might actually be the first product built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence (a misleading claim that Apple makes about the iPhone 16). The third component of the smart home strategy is software. That includes the new homeOS, which will be built on the underpinnings of tvOS — the Apple TV set-top box operating system. The company also recently revamped its Home app. To jump-start these efforts, the company is building a new Home Ecosystem team and moved some engineers from the shuttered car project to work on home products. It still won't be an easy task. Apple hasn't yet proven that it knows how to be successful in the category. Its first home product, the iPod Hi-Fi, was a $349 speaker designed to work smoothly with the Apple lineup. It didn't offer many novel features and was discontinued about 18 months after debuting in 2006. The initial HomePod, launched in 2018, was pricey and didn't offer groundbreaking features either. It got the ax, though Apple found more success with a cheaper version (the 2020 $99 HomePod mini). Then there's the Apple TV set-top box, which has a loyal following but isn't far better than cheaper alternatives. It's worth noting that Apple's smart home competitors haven't had many breakthroughs lately either. Amazon's initially strong momentum with its Echo speakers has waned. And some of its other hardware efforts, such as a rolling robot, haven't caught on. That means Apple has an opening. One of the first big steps will be releasing a new smart display — something people can use to play TV+ streaming content, do FaceTime calls, surf the web, and access apps like Calendar and Notes. It would be an affordable iPad-like screen, and consumers could place multiple units around the house, like they might with a HomePod mini. The tabletop device, which is expected to come later, would be on the pricier side — perhaps around $1,000 — and focus on home security monitoring, advanced videoconferencing, and media playback with high-quality audio. The screen would be positioned atop a swiveling robotic limb, helping it stand out from competitors' products. Apple needs a win here. Right now, nobody has truly mastered the smart home market. But at some point, someone will. If the right pieces fall into place, it could — and should — be Apple itself. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment