Apple and Siri stand behind Google and Amazon in the smart home

AT launch event last month, Google introduced a counter screen called Home Hub which is powered by Google Assistant, his digital assistant.

A month earlier, Amazon had unveiled about 70 new products and features in a similar presentation. Almost everyone has turned around his Alexa voice assistant.

Apple has not organized one, but two hardware launch events in the past two months, but has not included new smart home products either. And the company has not suggested any major changes for Siri, his digital assistant.

Undeniably, Apple is virtually invisible compared to the market leaders, Amazon and Google, in regards to smart home technology. The material presentations held before the autumn holidays not only reinforced this point, but also showed that the situation worsened. Every year that passes without Apple taking a big step forward, the company runs a greater risk of being excluded from the new, rapidly growing market.

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"Apple is not likely to fall behind," said Michael R. Levin, co-founder of market research company Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. tiny share of the smart speaker market The Apple HomePod is cut. "They are already late."

If Apple does not change its smart home strategy, it could lose a new, potentially profitable cash flow. Meanwhile, Amazon and Google could attract their hardware customers by integrating them into their Alexa and Google Assistant ecosystems. The inaction of the company could mean that millions of loyal fans of Apple will have fewer smart personal assistant options and will be forced to use a competing platform that does not will not work as well with their iPhones and MacBooks.

Apple has not yet lost, as the smart home market remains young and fragmented, said Jack Narcotta, analyst at Strategy Analytics. But, he added, the window of opportunity closes quickly.

"I do not think they're interested in how Amazon and Google are considering the market," said Narcotta, "but there is a risk that the longer they wait, the more these competitors advance."

Representatives Apple, Amazon and Google have not responded to a request for comment for this story.

What about Siri?

Last June, Apple introduced its first smart speaker, the Siri HomePod. The device was expected to be available in December, just in time for shopping. Instead he was delayed until February.

Amazon introduced its Alexa Echo loudspeaker at the end of 2014, for comparison, and is now the dominant market leader. Google deployed its own Google Home speaker in late 2016. Amazon and Google have since added a host of new devices to expand their world of smart speakers. New products include the Google Home Max high-end speaker, the Amazon Echo Spot mini-touch screen and the Echo wall clock.

The cheapest Google and Amazon speakers, called Home Mini and Echo Dot, cost $ 50, well below the $ 349 HomePod price.

Apple, meanwhile, has only the HomePod, barely mentioned during its latest product launch events. Apple has not reported any significant improvements to Siri either. Instead, he is gnarled at the margins, adding Siri Shortcuts application to create custom Siri commands, as well as search songs by lyrics and some new languages.

While Amazon and Google compete for competition by introducing new gadgets and features, Apple remains remarkably quiet. Its limited number of smart appliances for the home matches Siri's limited capabilities and its smaller number of partnerships with smart appliance manufacturers, such as Philips, Belkin and Ecobee.

In addition, as the smart home market is rapidly evolving towards owners of multiple speakers, Apple's only speaker is too expensive to meet current customer demand, said CIRP co-founder , Josh Lowitz.

Amazon's devices currently account for 63 percent of the US smart speaker market, with Echo and Echo Dot products at the top of the pack, according to a report released in October by Strategy Analytics. Google has claimed 17%, with Home and Home Mini in the following two places. The Apple HomePod was quite down the list with only 4%. It's unlikely to change much unless Apple does something else.

Samsung and Microsoft, who both have a voice assistant, have also failed to break into the smart speaker market and are even further behind Apple. Samsung plans to sell Galaxy Home speaker powered by his assistant Bixby, but has not yet announced prices or availability.

A weaker view of the prospects of Apple

Last December, I interviewed a handful of analysts for a similar story about the ambitions of the smart home of Apple. These interviews – which took place before the HomePod was commercialized – were much more enthusiastic about Apple's prospects. Analysts have pointed out that Apple's loyal customers, tight hardware and software integration, and huge cash – nearly $ 250 billion last July – were clear strengths that Apple could use to make its way. in the smart home.

They added that Apple was known to be a fast follower, letting competitors run out trying to invent new markets, but to launch at a convenient time with a much more refined product. After all, smartphones and smartwatches have done well. Why not with smart home products?

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Apple is always strong, of course. But analysts say Amazon and Google are ahead and it will be difficult to grasp. Once a customer is locked into a smart home system, it is much less likely that Apple will move them away, they said.

"We do not see consumers having more than one system in a home," CIRP's Levin said in an email. "And, once a consumer engages in this system, it's even harder to switch systems (for example from Echo to HomePod), after investing in it." 39, learning a system and the acquisition of accessories.

Narcotta, from Strategy Analytics, said people should not expect Apple to take a mainstream smart home market approach, but instead take advantage of its existing strengths and profit centers. . This means that users should expect that Apple encourages them to control their lights and locks with their iPhone or iPad, and not a cheap smart speaker, like a HomePod Mini, that would be in direct competition and that would compete directly with the Echo Dot at $ 50 from Amazon.

So, what could awaken Apple from its smart home sleep? This would happen if Amazon and Google managed to threaten iPhone or iPad sales with their smart gadgets, said Narcotta. This would certainly attract the attention of Apple very quickly.

But that did not happen.

"The day Amazon or Google start touching the iPhone's customer base," he said, "there will likely be some late-night meetings on campus."

First published at 5 am
Updated at 11:22 am Pacific Time to add more basic information.

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