Apple recently scrapped its plans to build and market its own self-driving car. But that doesn’t mean that the Cupertino, CA technology giant has abandoned its dream of outfitting every inch of your future in aerospace-grade aluminum and sapphire glass. Bloomberg is now reporting on a partnership between Apple and some of the U.S.’ largest home builders. A pair of demonstrations reveal Apple’s strategy to literally be installed into the foundation of your new home.
Lennar Corp. delivered a sleek demonstration in a spec home outfitted with $30,000 worth of upgrades, including shades, climate, music, lighting, and security all working in concert to ensconce you in a harmonious environment that expensively anticipates your every move. Meanwhile, KB home pitched a similar system at a more affordable, $2,000 entry-level price point.
While Amazon and Google have long competed in this space, Apple is not developing their own suite of exquisitely manicured hardware. Instead, the company is leveraging its free HomeKit app and SDK to help builders and hardware providers use Apple as the brains of their smart home products. The strategy here being that smart homes running HomeKit will be operated by a family of iPhone and iPad users. Using the same strategy behind iPods and iTunes to re-infiltrate the personal computing market, Apple likely sees this as a way to reinvigorate flattening sales of their touchscreen products. Of course, Apple is probably already looking forward to a sales boost, thanks to consumer blowback over their competitor’s novelty-exploding smartphones.