HOMEKIT DEVICES HIGHLIGHT MAJOR PROBLEMS HOLDING BACK SMART HOME ADOPTION: The HomeKit ecosystem is suffering from two major problems that have held back growth in the overall smart home market, as evidenced by a comprehensive review of nine HomeKit-compatible smart home devices by CNET.

Smart home device costs need to come down. Several of the HomeKit-compatible devices simply cost too much for the average consumer. The only smart lock that currently works with HomeKit is the Schlage Sense Bluetooth Deadbolt, which costs $230. Regular front door deadbolt locks can cost less than $15. The only smart thermostat that works with HomeKit right now is the $250 Ecobee3 smart thermostat. The Nest smart thermostat, which competes with Ecobee, also costs $250, but a regular home thermostat can cost as little as $20. The wide price gap between connected home devices and non-connected ones is probably the biggest barrier to smart home adoption right now.
Fragmentation can confuse customers who are new to the smart home market. There are two versions of the Ecobee3 smart thermostat – one that works with HomeKit, and one that doesn’t. So customers have to be careful which one they buy if they want to use HomeKit, which is difficult as the two versions of the thermostat look identical. HomeKit also works with the Insteon smart home hub, which can control a full range of Insteon smart home devices including lights, locks, and switches. However, only some of those Insteon products can work with HomeKit, while others don’t. Again, this could confuse customers into buying devices that don’t actually work with HomeKit. This is a problem with other platforms for controlling smart home devices like the Amazon Echo and Nest’s Weave that only work with a limited number of devices right now.
2015 Advertised Prices Of Connected Vs. Nonconnected Home Products