Wall Street Journal: HomeKit Already needs Renovation

[Frunple]

It's curious how the Apple loyal always say there's such a huge market already in place. Sure, they all buy the new iphone and ipad, but it's the same people buying them. Almost every iphone user also has an ipad, and probably an ipad mini or whatever they call them now.
Fact is, Android still has over 80% of the smart phone market and always will. There's the huge market.

 

[pvrfan]

It's curious how the Apple loyal always say there's such a huge market already in place. Sure, they all buy the new iphone and ipad, but it's the same people buying them. Almost every iphone user also has an ipad, and probably an ipad mini or whatever they call them now.
Fact is, Android still has over 80% of the smart phone market and always will. There's the huge market.

 
Source?
 
Latest US stats say Apple has a 43% market share:

In April 2015, Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 43.1 percent OEM market share, while Google Android led as the #1 smartphone platform with 52.2 percent platform market share.

http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Market-Rankings/comScore-Reports-April-2015-U.S.-Smartphone-Subscriber-Market-Share
 
Overseas, there are a lot of very cheap Android devices sold that barely qualify as a smartphone.  Old versions of Android, weak processors, etc.  Big market share...but not a very attractive market to sell into.
 
Craig

 

[drvnbysound]

It's curious how the Apple loyal always say there's such a huge market already in place. Sure, they all buy the new iphone and ipad, but it's the same people buying them. Almost every iphone user also has an ipad, and probably an ipad mini or whatever they call them now.
Fact is, Android still has over 80% of the smart phone market and always will. There's the huge market.

 
I think that the Apple clientele can be more profitable in terms of these types of ventures simply because they are more likely to pay. Of the people I know, with smart phones, it is probably split close to what you mention - I'd say 35/65 in my case. However, of those 65% that have Android phones, 80%+ of them get phones offered for $1 or $0.01 at the time of their upgrade, and are similarly NOT LIKELY to pay for any smart home technology at all. To me that 80% (or whatever the Android market share is) is moot, if the vast majority of them aren't going to be buying into the HA market (or other) anyway. 
 
Just for reference: I am an iPhone user, but my first smart phone was an Android. I do own an iPad, but don't use it on a daily basis. My wife also switched from Android to Apple, and has an iPad - she does use her iPad daily.
 
I've seen some issues with Elk apps on Android. It seems that over the years there have been a few of them and at least 2 of them are no longer supported. Part of my initial justification for switching was the capability that eKeypad offered me; much more capability from a single app than offerings on Android. I had no problem justifying the $99 cost for the Pro version. However, I would have a hard time doing the same on the Android platform.

 

[jkmonroe]

Android is too fractured to have any meaningful impact.  They might be tops in market share, but it's solely for the reason described above - everyone can get their 'smartphone' for a penny.
 
These debates are always fun, but only one person has managed to hit on the real value of Apple HomeKit, and that is the simple fact that Apple is standing in the room.  Anyone who thinks that manufacturers won't bend over backwards to offer support for HomeKit are just placating themselves for some reason or another.  There are 1 BILLION iOS devices in the world, most of which are in the hands of people who can afford to buy other things - so of course there will be support.  
 
A good example?  Go find me a receiver that doesn't support AirPlay.  I'll wait.
 

 

[ano]

Fact is, Android still has over 80% of the smart phone market and always will. There's the huge market.

Hmmm, In the US it doesn't.  http://www.phonearena.com/news/Report-Apples-iPhone-owns-50-of-the-US-smartphone-market_id71333
 
 

It's curious how the Apple loyal always say there's such a huge market already in place. Sure, they all buy the new iphone and ipad, but it's the same people buying them. Almost every iphone user also has an ipad, and probably an ipad mini or whatever they call them now.

Hmmm,  That would be mathematically difficult. In Q2 2015 Apple sold 12.6 million iPads, but 61 million iPhones.  Unless each iPad owner is also buying 5 iPhones, then a good share of iPhone uses likely don't own an iPad. 

 

[Dean Roddey]

Well, one could say show me one that doesn't have HDMI as well. And of course HDMI was also originally touted as the new all seeing interconnect, but it never happened because companies didn't broadly support that aspect of it, even if they implemented it at all. It had many benefits for such things over IP/serial/USB, but it still didn't happen due to its capabilities in that area just being mostly ignored. And it was pretty widely supported by some big companies when it came out.

And, as I said, Apple isn't the only player. The Thread Group may well be more attractive to manufacturers, and all they need to be competitive with HomeKit (from the iOS user's point of view) is that the user can control their stuff from their iOS device. The rest is just plumbing to the end user, and not something they will likely be much interested in, in which case it would come down to price, and we know that's not Apple's strong suite.

Whether they actually do any better isn't as important (for the purposes of this conversation) as the degree to which they manage to muddy the waters, and split loyalties amongst hardware manufacturers. Given Apple's notorious level of inbreeding, it may be much more attractive to companies to support hardware that can be supported by any client platform, and get access to an even larger potential market. Whether that market actually ends up existing also doesn't matter wrt to this particular debate.

Anyway, that really is it. I've said all I have to say.

 

[wkearney99]

  Go find me a receiver that doesn't support AirPlay.  I'll wait.

 
Problem is most do a very crappy job of implementing it.  It's a check-mark, at best.  Then it's audio-only, no video.  It ends up being more versatile to use an HDMI plug-in device like a Chromecast, Roku or a DVR with streaming features instead.

 

[wkearney99]

hmmm,  That would be mathematically difficult. In Q2 2015 Apple sold 12.6 million iPads, but 61 million iPhones.  Unless each iPad owner is also buying 5 iPhones, then a good share of iPhone uses likely don't own an iPad. 

 
Which may have more to do with purchases of phones are related to new features vs keeping the existing tablet.  We've gone through several iterations of phones without replacing tablets. 

 

[LarrylLix]

I don't know. I have four Onkyo receivers and none of them support AirPlay. I am not interested in buying a new $1K receiver every three years and I am slowly learning not to follow fads so closely. We have airlay on XBMC and an iPad and it's just too clumsy and unsupported to bother with.
 
As far as the iPad fad it seems to be slowly coming to an end and a divide in users  as other devices copy the style and serious computer users soon realise they need to attach all kind of peripherals to make it useful for more business type uses. The first thing that is need is a real keyboard and then some HDD space somewhere. This jumps back in history when gadgets tangled in cords everywhere were the sad state of a useful computer in the 70s.
 
OTOH my 3 year old granddaughter can operate her iPad to play games, watch movies etc. and she can neither read or write. That is quite the revolution in the computer OS world. Sure was fun watching her trying to close the app with her hands on the 55" TV, though. She didn't want to watch the show we had on and isn't allowed to watch TV at home so her experience with TV was minimal.

 

[pete_c]

Just a short video from November 27th 1995 featuring Bill Gates on the David Letterman (retired May 20, 2015) show.
 
Yesteday watched a revisit of the 1990's and did notice that Bill Gates donated 150 million dollars to Apple in 1995 mostly relating to the need of competition. 
 
I cannot find the video right now where Bill Gates (video conferenced in) spoke to Steve Jobs giving him the money.
 
Bill Gates does mention a bit of automation here for his new home.  
 
This video does relate a bit to some historically significancant stuff that should not be forgotten or erased or changed as it did really happen.
 
[youtube]http://youtu.be/lz6IQX7uDk4[/youtube]
 
There is an initial reference to the Quiz Machine which I didn't really understand so I looked it up....there is a wiki for just about anything these days...
 

Quiz machine is a term used in the UK for commercial coin-operated video quiz games that offer cash prizes for winning performances. These machines are usually found sited in pubs, bars and other places of entertainment. The term quiz machine is often used interchangeably with the trade term SWP ("Skill With Prizes") although not all SWP games are quiz based.
 
The quiz machine first appeared on the scene in the UK in 1985. The first such machine was called Quizmaster which was made by the Cardiff based now defunct Coinmaster Ltd. This was rapidly followed by quiz machines from other manufacturers.