In what could be a blow to the security camera market, Apple is set to enter the home security camera market late next year or early in 2026, according to observers tracking Apple supply chain.
The move is part of an in an effort to expand their HomeKit platform products range as the business looks for new ways to generate revenue due to slowing sales of iPhones and Mac PC’s.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that Chinese tech firm GoerTek will be the exclusive assembly supplier for the new Apple hardware with the iPhone Company also tipped to release a competitor to Amazon’s Echo Show 15 and Google’s Nest Hub.
ChannelNews understands that Apple now has a team working on the expansion of their Apple Home Kit Platform, which is Matter certified, this will allow third party products to be attached to the Apple network subject to new software and hardware demands.
The move will see Apple go head-to-head with Samsung’s Smart Things, Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa with the Company offering both hardware and a secure platform for developers and home owners.
Apple’s move into the IP market is tipped to include both indoor and outdoor cameras, however their strong ecosystem could make life difficult for rival manufacturers that fail to innovate or have embedded technology acceptable to Apple.
Goertek, the Chinese Company Apple is looking to partner with, claim that they have accumulated rich experiences in acoustics, wireless devices, software, optics, system integration and other fields.
The Company already has R&D centres in China, China Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, and other locations globally and is believed to be the current manufacturer of Nest products for Google and Echo products for Amazon.
A visit to their web site reveals that they have twelve engineering laboratories and that they partner with the Chinese Academy of Sciences via their Goertek Communication and Acoustics Joint Laboratory.
Currently Apple is looking for new products and categories with insiders telling ChannelNews at the recent IFA show in Germany that Apple sees the home as a key market due to security concerns that home owners have relating to network and physical property security.
Apple’s focus on privacy and security could set a new standard for an industry that has seen many failures over the years, with camera feeds and other associated data compromised by hackers, the Verge claimed recently.
Its cloud-based HomeKit Secure Video platform already provides end-to-end encryption for feeds from compatible third-party cameras, but if Apple launches its own camera, other competitors would be forced to up their game when it comes to security and privacy they claim.
Apple is a foundation member of Matter along with arch rivals Google and Amazon.
Last week a new version of Matter, the smart home interoperability standard, was released with Apple having a major say in the development of the new 1.4 upgrade due to their concerns over network inoperability.
While Matter is two years old and was initially praised when it was first release, several Companies have already walked away from the standard due to the high cost of being associated with the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA).
CSA claims that Matter 1.4 should fix that, and also add more device categories to its compatibility list.
One of the big new features is enhanced multi-admin.
This allows different devices to play nicely with each other, even if they’re from different ecosystems.
It will make Thread border routers work better with one another and should make it easier to add Matter via Wi-Fi routers and access points too.
Apple see Matter as a key part of their HomeKit eco system.
