A little over a decade ago, on September 13, 2016, Apple officially entered the smart-home market. That was the date when the Home app launched, bringing control of compatible third-party smart-home products to the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.
It’s probably fair to say that Home hasn’t exactly set the world on fire. Not like the AirPods, for instance, which launched a week earlier and went on to become one of Apple’s most popular and instantly recognisable products. Or like the Apple Watch, which came out the year before and quickly dominated the smartwatch market to such an effortless extent that it sometimes feels like the other watches might as well not bother.
I don’t choose those examples at random. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reviewing the latest Apple Watch and the latest set of AirPods, which is why they’re in my thoughts. They’re both good products, but it’s particularly striking how much of the winning formula was there from the very beginning. Neither of those products change very much from year to year because they don’t need to. Apple got it right the first time, and now just needs to tweak and iterate.
The Home app was never quite like that, which I suspect is one of the reasons why it has never reached the same level of success. It didn’t come charging out of the gate the way the AirPods did, all confident design and omnipresent ads. It didn’t have the same marketing push behind it, the same level of visibility on Apple’s website. Home didn’t feel like a proper first-party product, just a vague umbrella concept for third-party accessories with varying levels of polish. The problem is that, uncharacteristically, Apple didn’t commit.
This week is Apple’s chance to renew its vows to the smart-home market and commit properly. Tomorrow, October 13, Apple holds its latest “Special Experience,” and the theme is hardly a secret: The tagline is “Welcome Home” and rumors of imminent launches have been unavoidable for weeks.
Apple is about to give the smart home another try. It will do this, most pundits agree, with an updated HomePod mini and Apple TV, along with something completely new: a home hub that looks a bit like half an iPad sitting on half a HomePod. Nobody is sure what this latter product will be called. HomePad is both obvious and logical, but it’s also rather boring. HomeHub is another option. My money is on something suitably new, such as the latest rumors suggest, HomeView.
Exciting new Apple hardware is a good start, and the HomeHub (let’s stick with that for now) would represent a gratifying statement of intent in being so obviously targeted at the smart home in a way no other first-party Apple product has been. The iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and later HomePod could all be used to control home tech, but they had other purposes too. Without the home element, the HomeHub would seem rather pointless. It’s a risk. It’s a commitment.
But a smart-home ecosystem lives and dies by its lights, thermostats, doorbells, locks, and security cameras, not by the hub units which control them. And in that sphere Apple is still reluctant to commit.
Rumor says the company is about to unveil a suite of such products—all major categories except lights have been mentioned—but that they have been developed in partnership with LG and will be branded under that company’s name. (It was later claimed that Schneider is also involved, which may be a hint that further companies may feature at the event.) Some have described this as a second-party arrangement, which is an improvement of sorts. But it’s hard to imagine that LG accessories will trigger the same feelings of trust and goodwill as a set of Apple-branded home products.
Apple, of course, is not a company with experience in making doorbells and thermostats, and it’s understandable that it would be reluctant to start now. Working strategically with other companies, drawing on their expertise in niche markets, is a good thing. But this week Apple fans need to see that the company is prepared to commit fully to the smart home. And if it isn’t, we can hardly be expected to do the same.
Foundry
Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.
Apple sets NYC ‘experience’ this week to showcase new smart home devices.
4 big announcements coming at Apple’s Welcome Home event.
Apple is reportedly set to launch a trio of smart home gadgets with LG.
6 iPhone 18 Pro photography tricks worth spending more to get.
Cutting staff, boosting product development, designing the next big thing… John Ternus is doing it all, the Macalope reports.
Surface Laptop Ultra is Microsoft’s best effort to catch up to Apple.
M6 deep dive: A brilliant 2nm design held back by bandwidth.
This breakthrough USB-C cable solves your Mac desktop’s biggest problem.
Check out New Balance’s secret tribute to Steve Jobs on the anniversary of his passing.
The iPhone 18 Pro is here, offering better performance, better battery life, and better cameras. Is it worth the money? Tune in to the latest episode of the Macworld Podcast to find out.
You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.
Touchscreen MacBook is set to launch on October 27.
Talking of which… the touchscreen MacBook may be Air-light. But it might not be much thinner.
Apple will reportedly hold not one but two sets of product launches this month.
Thanks to the A20 Pro chip, the iPhone 18 Pro is faster than a Mac mini. For more videos, follow us on TikTok and Instagram.
Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro Max recall explained: Is Qualcomm to blame?
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