In a note to clients, the Barclays research group says Apple’s smart home products won’t drive sales, but will build customer loyalty.
Analysts Mark Moskowitz, Daniel Gaide, and Chang Liu says Apple has an advantage over Amazon in that Siri is available on more than 700 million devices compared to 20 million for Echo. The iPhone makes a “natural control panel” for a smart home “due to its user-friendly interface and constant presence with the user,” they add.
Still they’re dubious that Apple can leverage the smart home usage into material revenue in the near-term and expect the HomePod smart speaker, due in September, to be “an ancillary offering.” On a brighter note, the Barclays analysts say “if iOS/iPhone can be used as the control panel of the connected home, it will be more challenging for users to change platforms.”
