Scattered and disconnected systems have long been an inconvenience in the smart home industry. As the so-called IoT platforms appeared, the industry started to change and the ecosystem phenomenon took shape.
Scattered and disconnected systems have long been an inconvenience in the smart home industry. As the so-called IoT platforms appeared, the industry started to change and the ecosystem phenomenon took shape.
Semiconductor Dialog announced its second-generation development kit support Apple HomeKit, one of the smart home platforms. With the introduction of mobile operating system iOS 10 and its integration with Apple HomeKit, the smart home platform has become a more popular adoption choice.
Smart home owners can now connect different devices together and control them via one single app – Home, either on iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch.
Dialog’s latest development kit is built on its DA14681 system on chip (SoC), which supports all current HomeKit Accessory Profiles with end-to-end encryption to ensure user security and privacy. Smart home device manufacturers are expected to benefit from the kit which will shorten the time to bring products connected to Apple HomeKit to the market.
Mark de Clercq,
director of Bluetooth
Low Energy at
Dialog Semiconductor
There were problems in the smart home market in the past, said Mark de Clercq, director of Bluetooth Low Energy at Dialog Semiconductor. The technology was fragmented and the infrastructure such as Wi-Fi gateway in every home was limited.
With the arrival of Apple HomeKit, the infrastructure gets upgraded as the system gets routine updates and various devices are able to talk with each other. Furthermore, the platform offers user-friendly apps, easy-to-set-up user experience and substantial security protection, Mark de Clercq said.
The DA14681 chip, with an ARM Cortex M0 processor, also supports Bluetooth 4.2, expandable flash memory, a power management unit for sensors and motors and a built-in charger supporting USB interface.
Besides the hardware, Dialog also provides the software to help manufacturers integrate Apple HomeKit into their products.
“HomeKit is one of the ecosystems,” said Mark de Clercq. Earlier in 2016, the company released the development kit supporting another smart home platform, Nest.
The smart home market has been around for a long time. Over the past few years, as big consumer electronics firms moved into the space, things started to change. The big players shaped the industry with their vast power and resources, Mark de Clercq said. “HomeKit is one of them, but we also believe there will be alternatives.”
As such, Dialog provides a single platform giving clients the choice to decide which ecosystem to go for, or alternatively, to pursue multiple ecosystems.
For end users, many were confused by all the different devices that don’t talk to each other. As big players entered the market and bought some products work into their ecosystems, it should give consumers much more confidence in buying the products. This will boost the smart home end-product market and consumers will engage more, Mark de Clercq said.
Dialog forecast the smart home market will keep growing, at least for another three to five years.
“Smart home is a key area that we continue to invest in. It’s one of the markets that will see a big growth, now that everything starts to connect with each other, creating new interfaces to offer a different, better user experience,” he said.