Apple’s push into the smart home market has been ‘a failure so far’

Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman held a Q&A session focused on the Apple Car, but the questions veered off into other areas, as well, including Apple’s smart home plans.

One reader asked, “Do you think Apple smart home things are going to improve in the near future?”

Here’s Gurman’s response: I think Apple’s push into the smart home has been a failure so far. In fact, you can argue that Apple’s pushes into anything outside of iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods and Apple Watch hardware (jury is still out on Vision Pro) has been mediocre at best.

The Apple Home app isn’t great, their Home ecosystem is subpar, and the way Home product development is managed internally is a bit all of the place. Anyway, I still think there is a huge saving grace here for Apple: its brand (including its reputation for privacy) and ability to sell hardware.

If Apple decides to make real home hardware, they might be able to be successful. But they have to decide to actually do it.