On April 1st, 1976, Jobs and Wozniak co-founded Apple Inc. Next year on April 1st, Apple will celebrate its 50th anniversary since its establishment.

Recently, Bloomberg journalist Gurman revealed Apple's roadmap for 2026. As a key initiative, on the occasion of the company's 50th anniversary, Apple will restart its smart home strategy with the launch of its first smart display products, including

（Image Source: Apple）

From all these, it is not hard to see Apple's intention to comprehensively accelerate and strengthen the construction of smart home platforms and ecosystems. However, Apple has missed the golden decade of smart home development and layout to some ext

In 2014, Apple first entered the smart home market with the launch of its HomeKit platform. In 2015, the first batch of HomeKit certified devices came to market, covering smart lighting, sockets, temperature control, door locks and other categories.

After the completion of the third-party home device access platform and system construction, Apple finally began to promote its own smart home products. However, many years have passed, and it still only stays in the most basic field of voice-control

（Image Source: Apple）

Just like its smart voice assistant which is often late to the party despite being up early, Apple is experiencing the same situation in the smart home market.

Of course, if we only look at the third-party devices and brands connected to HomeKit, Apple has not been idle in these years. According to the official Apple website, currently, the global HomeKit third-party ecosystem has connected to 22 categories

Categories already integrated into HomeKit third-party ecosystem (source: Apple)

The problem is, such a scale is more like a limited operation and maintenance platform project for the vast Apple Empire. And from some star products sold on Apple's official website, even bigger problems can be found.

A search of HomeKit third-party devices sold on Apple's official website in China and the United States shows that currently only 31 models are sold on the official website of the United States, with prices ranging from US$40 to US$330; there are eve

Among the 12 third-party HomeKit ecosystem devices on the Apple China official website, the Nanoleaf smart LED bulb (3-pack) which supports Thread and Matter protocols is priced at 368 yuan, while a smart floor lamp from Philips is priced at 2298 yua

Nanoleaf Smart LED Bulbs 3-Pack, Apple official website selling price is 368 yuan (source: Apple)

Have you noticed that Apple's third-party devices in the HomeKit ecosystem are relatively expensive? Especially in the domestic market, they can be considered completely unapproachable. For HomeKit devices that support universal protocols like Matter

The total number of third-party devices in Apple's HomeKit ecosystem has always been relatively small, and the prices of individual products, especially those designed specifically for the HomeKit ecosystem, are also high. Given this situation, it mi

In the US market, Gurman knows that Apple will face fierce competition from Amazon and Google in the smart home market. What he may not know is the competition Apple will face in the Chinese market and how difficult the competition will be.

In a nutshell, the process of new terms such as whole-house intelligence and human-car-home gradually replacing the term smart home in China itself indicates the complexity of its ecosystem and the diversification of its subjects.

Compared to the traditional definition of smart home, the new whole-house intelligence strategy launched by major domestic platforms is innovative in that it has shifted from single-point intelligence to overall intelligence, transitioning from the t

Of course, Apple has been collaborating with real estate developers for nine years now, providing a complete HomeKit solution for new home decoration.

Therefore, this brings up another new innovation in whole-house intelligence, which is "senseless interaction."

In recent years, with the rapid development of AI technology, big models and intelligent bodies have made a home that knows you better a reality gradually.

（Picture source: Midea）

For example, in Midea's whole-house intelligent system, AI has begun to take over the "decision-making power", and this ability is given to the category or single item itself, rather than the traditional "system central control" level: air conditione

Smart home evolution to a whole-house intelligent level can be seen as a significant upgrade in the industry's development philosophy. It shifts from the traditional mode where people actively control functions to a paradigm where AI actively provide

Currently, there are several schools of thought in China's whole-home intelligence and smart home platform industry. One is represented by major mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Huawei, which are also the closest competitors to Apple in

There are many schools, but a new consensus on industry development has gradually formed among major domestic manufacturers in recent years, which is the concept of 'human-car-home'.

Taking Xiaomi as an example, its proposed all-in-one ecosystem for people, cars and homes is a strategy that takes smartphones as the core entry point, integrating smart cars and smart homes. In this ecosystem, smartphones are high-frequency entry po

Human-Car-Home is becoming a new trend in the industry, so it is not hard to understand the actions of car manufacturers making refrigerators, TVs, big sofas and home appliance manufacturers entering the car manufacturing industry as well.

（Image Source: ZMEEL）

People, Cars, Homes slogan, although proposed by a major mobile phone company, does not affect the flexible application of home appliance manufacturers based on their own realities.

Taking Midea as an example, its advocated “Human-Car-Home” strategy mainly focuses on an open platform strategy, which aims to attract more mobile phone manufacturers, automakers, and internet companies to join in and jointly create a Midea version o

In addition, the tech-savvy represented by TCL and Gree, besides competing for the dominance of the human-car-home ecosystem, are also intending to play the role of professional suppliers in the whole scene and whole ecosystem with their core technol

（Image Source: TCL）

Do you see it? This is the increasingly fierce competition for domestic whole-scene and whole-space ecology. Compared with ten years ago, more home appliance and automakers are eager to join in this competition and are eager to get a slice of the pie

Household appliances covered by the Miji brand (Source: Miji Store)

Of course, Apple has not manufactured cars, but it is also promoting its CarPlay platform. However, as for system manufacturers like Apple, how much business value and incremental space can they gain from the mere presence in the smart home market an

In summary, in the domestic market where smart homes have already been developed to a great extent, it is not easy for Apple to make a late move to gain an advantage. As for its plan to expand into multiple categories of smart homes, the actual effec

According to Apple's financial report, in the latest nine quarters, including the latest quarter with slight decline, the wearable devices, home products and accessories business area, as one of the company's top five businesses, has recorded a rare

（Source: 9to5Mac）

As smart home, Apple Watch and AirPods are all lumped together as a single revenue stream, it's impossible for outsiders to determine the specific revenue performance of each individual component. However, it's certain that smart home is currently on

Apple's confident entry into the smart home market years ago is now in stark contrast with its current ordinary presence today.

Nonetheless, AI is still in its accelerated development phase, and smart homes/whole-house intelligence/human-vehicle-home platforms and ecosystems are in a new round of "main growth period". Companies that are still in the game have a chance to turn

For Apple, it's not only about how much improvement Siri can achieve, but also about whether to strongly promote its smart home platform and expand its own product categories.

Next year or the year after, if Apple really starts to strongly promote its smart home strategy, then it might be worthwhile to learn from domestic manufacturers' concepts of whole-home intelligence and strategies of people-car-home.