After getting somewhat excited last week about the possibilities of Apple’s WWDC announcement for the smart home, we were left a little underwhelmed this week. However, on the same day that Apple announced the HomeKit platform, Samsung was demonstrating its Tizen-based smart home project at the Tizen Developers Conference.
This sees the smartphone rivals moving into similar territory, where Google has already staked its claim and where Microsoft hopes to catch up with its recent Insteon deal. What we will see unfold over the next year or so will be the attempts by the Big Three and Samsung to move into the smart home ecosystem by leveraging their existing platforms. We here at RIoT think it’s going to get messy.
Instead of new home hardware emerging from Apple, we were shown a platform that would use WiFi and Bluetooth to link third party smart home devices to iOS 8. This will allow customers to use their iDevices to control the home ‘ importantly not from within a HomeKit app but rather through the entire OS. Most notably, this means that Siri will allow users to voice-control the home, but geofenced locational alerts will also help automate the process of moving around and away from the home ‘ triggering device behaviors.
But Apple has not announced any products itself. Instead, it will launch the home equivalent of ‘Made for iPhone’ (MFi) compatibility certificate for third parties to use. As well as the MFi label, Apple is partnering with a number of large names to identify and use ‘a common network protocol that has secure pairing so only your iPhone can unlock your garage door.’
We suspect that ZigBee or Z-Wave will make an appearance, as a centrally coordinated mesh network should be able to achieve a higher security standard than isolated endpoints in a WiFi or Bluetooth network. The hacking of a wireless baby monitor made headlines when an attacker used the compromised device to scream obscenities at a toddler (see more in the Around the Web section). Apple will not want any association with such an incident to tarnish its reputation, so we believe that we won’t see the final product until Apple is confident in its performance. Hopefully it’s learned from the Apple Maps launch debacle.
But for a mesh network to make sense, it would require a dedicated home hub to coordinate all of the devices used in a home. It seems unintuitive to rely on the user’s iPhone to control the smart home when the user is away from the house, but there has been no sign of an Apple hub to meet this need. Similarly, what if the iPhone owner leaves the home but leaves family members inside ‘ how would they control the automated features? We’re not sure how Apple intends to circumvent these issues, but if it were to opt for a dedicated hub, the bill of materials could be low enough to be bundled with future iPhones, tablets and computers ‘ a huge path to market for the company that its rivals would struggle to match.
There is the option of a software solution to the mesh network problem. A software-defined radio might let an ordinary iPhone talk to ZigBee or Z-Wave devices as of today via a software patch. We reached out to GreenPeak’s Cees Links, who confirmed that such an approach was possible with the existing hardware in the iPhone even though at first glance the two systems look incompatible.
Links added that ‘Apple is helping bring cohesion in the smart home eco system that we are very excited about. How things will be unfolding we will probably know in the coming weeks, while we are studying the kit and engaging with Apple to help contribute to this ecosystem.’
A large number of prominent third parties were namedropped by Apple at the event, including TI, Cree, Chamberlain, Marvell, Skybell, August, Honeywell, Haier, Schlage, Philips, iHome, Kwisket, Broadcom, Netatmo and Withings. For all third parties, the volume of iDevices in households which might also want home automation is too large an opportunity to pass up.
So Samsung looks like it has quite the task ahead if it hopes to rival Apple. That’s before Google reveals the hand it has been drawing from the deck, raising the stakes exponentially from its early Google Home projects with the $3.2 billion Nest thermostat acquisition.
But Tizen OS has now come to the home after appearing in watches and handsets. With a Tizen TV making news this week, and the launch of the first Tizen phone in Russia too, Tizen represents Samsung’s attempt to distance itself from Google and Android. Samsung has almost runaway with the Android platform on flagship mobiles, leading to some semi-public spats between the two that saw Google crack the whip to bring the Korean giant back in line with the Android license. Samsung’s biggest departure from the Android crowd has seen it try to push its own versions of Android apps, and had Samsung chosen to stick with Android for the smart home (and who’s to say it won’t) we would certainly have seen an ‘S’ version of the Android Home app ‘ diluting the Android brand.
So Tizen here represents Samsung’s attempt to go it alone, and the approach closely resembles the Apple ecosystem. In a tech demo, Samsung developers used the Gear 2 smart watch to control the home. When the watch was told ‘I’m coming home,’ the Samsung air conditioner spooled up, the Samsung autonomous vacuum cleaner returned to its docking station and a Samsung light turned on. The opposite command triggered the opposite behavior. There was no hub in sight, much like Apple’s plan.
The major difference between the Apple and Samsung platforms currently is that Samsung already manufactures a range of home appliances while Apple does not. We don’t believe that Samsung can win this war if it wants to use its own handsets with its own home appliances. Apple’s MFi approach guarantees compatibility with a wider range of appliances than Samsung, and as consumers rarely outfit their homes with the products of solely one brand, we think the Tizen Home initiative is doomed if it does not let third parties enter the ecosystem.
Apple also has a significant leg up on Samsung if Tizen is a prerequisite for the Samsung smart home experience ‘ users only need to upgrade to iOS 8 to use the HomeKit functionality. If a user needs to purchase a Tizen device to use the Tizen Home technologies, this would put Samsung at a huge disadvantage. However, Tizen is built on top of a solid Linux kernel, so interoperability shouldn’t be an issue unless the Tizen developers choose for it to be.
So even though Samsung has launched the first Bluetooth mesh networked light bulb this week, as well as its ZigBee based lights and retrofit tubes, we firmly believe that a Samsung-only products approach will not win out over Apple. Doubt still remains over whether Tizen as an OS has any longevity, and therein lays the crux of the Tizen Home problem ‘ what good is an automated home platform built to last several years if Samsung pulls support for Tizen if/when it flops?
Ultimately, Apple looks poised to secure the connected home ahead of its most serious competitor. Google seems to have a strong hand to play, but has made no sign of doing so yet. In fact, it looks like Google has been granted something of a reprieve, as Apple failed to announce any hardware to support the smart home. Microsoft has made some ground with its Insteon deal, which sees it integrate Windows Phone (and by extension Windows for computers and Xbox too) with a widely deployed home automation line. Meanwhile, Samsung looks like it wants desperately to get in on the action, but in all likelihood lacks the Tizen handset platform to succeed in an ecosystem at odds with the Samsung home appliances. Samsung needs to open up Tizen Home to third party devices and appliances if it wants to succeed here, and pray that Tizen is a hit with mobile devices. After all, you need the customer base to push a value-add product, and that’s a race that the big three are currently lapping Tizen in.