Insteon, Lutron, iHome, Elgato and Ecobee have all just announced that their HomeKit products are now officially available and/or shipping to customers.
The announcements come on the heels of our report that Apple partners planned this week to launch the first products using the company’s new Siri-controlled HomeKit home automation platform, first introduced alongside iOS 8 last year.
Insteon’s product is a hub that comes with a new app that will let customers control connected Insteon products, as well as other HomeKit-enabled products from other companies, including lights, door locks, color-changing bulbs, garage door openers, thermostats, and more.
“We’re excited to be shipping our HomeKit-enabled Insteon Hub and releasing the Insteon+ mobile app, enabling the mass consumer market to live in a world where all of their connected devices work together in perfect harmony,” said Joe Dada, CEO, Insteon. “HomeKit streamlines home automation for consumers, brings together multiple manufacturers and offers advanced features like remote control and voice control through integrations with Siri.”
The $149 Insteon Hub is available through Amazon and some other online retailers first, but will launch in stores in July. That’s the timeframe for other HomeKit products hitting stores, too: earlier today, Elgato put its HomeKit-enabled Eve sensors, variously capable of detecting weather, air quality and more, up for preorder through its website.
Other companies are making announcements for availability of their previously previewed HomeKit products today too, including Lutron’s smart hub + Caseta lighting system, iHome‘s smart plug receptacle, and Ecobee‘s smart thermostat.
Apple will likely have more of HomeKit to show at its WWDC developer conference later this month, including a new ‘Home’ app for iOS 9 that uses virtual rooms to manage HomeKit accessories giving a user interface to the platform other than Siri commands. And, as we reported earlier, we expect a handful of other HomeKit companies to announce products shipping this week as well.
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50€ for a plug and 80€ to check room air quality and temperature is extremely expensive.
If one could save a couple of € a month of current consumption, if at all, by turning off devices you are not using (which you can already do with a 10€ timed programmable device – https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B003TZZLEI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ), it would take you more than 2 years to first offset the cost of the plug, before actually gaining something.
The Eve Weather is cheap in comparison and a good buy.
I think I will wait a few months and several other suppliers increasing competition and forcing a much necessary price down, before I support this rip off. Pity because the devices could be interesting.
Typical smart switches are around $50-60USD here. I haven’t purchased any plugs, but the switches are well worth the money in my opinion. They are elegant and the LED status lights in them are customizable and nice to look at. I use the Insteon set of switches.
The original Insteon Hub was only about $35, so I’m a bit bothered that now it’s over $100 more than that just to add Apple HomeKit. We won’t be upgrading the Hub just yet. Let’s see if that price is stable or not.
Apple desperately needs to add a Home app to iOS to manage all of these devices with one secures, easy to use app.
Did you not see that mentioned in the last paragraph?
That is LITERALLY what the ‘Home’ app does. Geesh.
Yes I know but there’s no 100% guarantee we’ll see it in iOS 9.
Correct. It’s being reported as possibly coming out in iOS 9, but we’ve seen that before.
Can we have a chart with prices and what companies offer for comparison?
What about ‘Nest’ and ‘Ring’ door bell? I have both of these. Is it going to be a case of Apple decides what is good enough for HomeKit or will they support all available products?
Not a case of Apple supporting devices, but a case of devices supporting HomeKit.
I agree with above. My Insteon Hub is hardware and doesn’t support HomeKit. I’ll need to buy the new Hub for compatibility with my current switches. Bummer.
I’m pretty sure the Nest CEO was once at Apple (I think as a top iOS designer). Hopefully they will announce compatibility with HomeKit soon
Tony Fadell was the guy who brought the iPod concept to Steve.
Yes Tony Fadell was the guy who bought the iPod to Steve, and their company is Google’s now…
It appears, as usual, that Apple and (in this case) Insteon are not using the major established Zigbee or Z-Wave interface formats. That means all the smart switches I have already installed in my house to work with the Smart Things hub are useless with this new interface. As previously mentioned, these things are expensive and I’m not about to scrap them for new ones just to use this product.
That being said, sorry, Michael Tomlin… It IS about Apple not supporting devices and NOT the other way around. Zigbee and Z-Wave are well established and have been around for a while. If Apple and Insteon had been smart they would have chosen to go with the established network. Think of all the existing smart home customers they just excluded from their customer base.
In curious if they can release a new hub that will make the translations? I know my switches will work, but the hub won’t. I also don’t think it’s worth it (yet) to make the change. You have a significantly larger investment working against you. I’m hoping the hub can handle it.