Apple Launches Its Own Smart Home Devices for the First Time

For more than a decade, Apple left the job of making smart home gadgets to other companies. Now it has built its own. This week Apple launched the Apple Home Collection, a group of devices that covers home cameras, thermostats for heating and cooling, sensors, a smart lock for the front door and a doorbell with a video camera.

Apple made the devices together with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric. They arrive alongside HomeView, which is Apple's first smart display. (A smart display is a screen that sits in a room and can show information and answer to your voice.)

According to The Verge, Apple's smart home system, called HomeKit, began in 2014 but has often felt less developed than its rivals. Amazon and Google support more products, and each has popular brands of its own, Ring and Nest. Until now, Apple had no brand of its own to show customers.

Kaiann Drance, an Apple vice president, told The Verge that two technologies made this the right moment. One is Matter, an open standard that helps smart home products from different companies work together. The other is AI, which has made the Siri voice assistant better at holding a conversation.

Apple hopes HomeView will be the first step into the smart home. People might buy one to play music, follow cooking recipes or check their calendar, and later decide to add a camera or a lock. Drance said that once people try one smart device and find it easier than they expected, they start to see what is possible.

Research from the company Parks Associates found that the biggest reason people do not buy smart devices is that they do not see the value in them. Privacy, security, complexity and cost also matter to shoppers. Apple's answer includes one-tap setup, data that stays with the user and a single app to control everything. It does not lower the price, though. The products start at $200.

Elizabeth Parks, president of Parks Associates, said people who own Apple products tend to be very loyal, and that there is a large group of them.