Apple Pushes into the Crowded Smart Home Market with HomeView Hub

You’re old enough now, Siri. Do you think you could be a little more helpful around the house? 

On Tuesday, Apple introduced HomeView, a smart home hub that allows families to do everything from adjusting the thermostat and locking the doors to FaceTime and watching videos via the touch screen or their voice. HomeView, with its seven-inch display, will be available just in time for the holidays on Nov. 13. 

The last time the tech giant made a push this big into the smart home market was arguably 2014 when it debuted HomeKit. But now that Google and Amazon have a strong hold on this niche with the Nest Hub and Echo Show, it’s time for Apple to follow its usual playbook: act as perfector of its competitors’ products, instead of innovator of its own.  

HomeView Hopes Privacy Sells

New Apple CEO John Ternus is reportedly pushing the company to introduce new products and become more experimental, but smart homes aren’t exactly what comes to mind. Despite tech giants trying to convince us we need a system to automatically brew coffee, open curtains and see who’s at the door, smart homes never quite took off, in part because of their complexities and privacy concerns. 

But with HomeView, Apple is hoping it can differentiate: 

• One of the new product’s biggest selling points is its ability to offer six members of a household a personalized experience with their messages, calendar, reminders and more synced from their devices to the hub via facial recognition. Google and Amazon have similar offerings, but Apple seems to be hoping that its emphasis on safeguards against snooping — paired with the sleek features like color-matching cables the company has become known for — will attract customers. 
• The smart home appeal to companies is that they can get a foothold in your home with other products, too, though that hasn’t always worked for Amazon and Google. But Apple may have a chance at fighting off the Android ecosystem and making money on its new device thanks to its premium pricing. The HomeView costs $299, while Amazon’s Echo Show 8 costs $199.99 and Google’s Nest Hub, $99.99. 

Robot Speak: HomeView also features the new Siri virtual assistant, Siri AI, which can offer each person using the device personalized responses whether it’s helping them make a phone call or discover new music. While Siri AI can conversationally answer questions about “virtually any topic,” per Apple, analysts aren’t so sure it’s enough to bring consumers to the crowded smart home market, Reuters reported.