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Apple reportedly ramps up smart home efforts: to co-develop smart doorbell, door lock, and thermostat with LG
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Apple is set to make a major push into the smart home device space, planning to officially release a batch of new devices on October 13 that include smart doorbells, thermostats, and door locks. According to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, these products were developed through an unusual collaboration between Apple and LG Electronics, marking a significant advancement in Apple's smart home strategy.
Sources familiar with the matter revealed that this batch of new products will be integrated into a comprehensive device ecosystem, compatible with Apple's new smart home hub, as well as an upgraded HomePod mini and a new TV set-top box. Since the collaboration has not yet been officially announced, all sources familiar with the matter requested anonymity. The list of products jointly developed with LG, in addition to doorbells and thermostats, also includes smart locks, indoor security cameras, outdoor security cameras, and floodlight cameras.
Although both companies participated in the development work, the final products will carry the LG brand, with the South Korean company responsible for manufacturing and subsequent technical support. Apple has previously employed a similar strategy, quietly collaborating with companies such as Belkin under Foxconn and Logitech to develop products, which were then sold under the partners' own brands. This approach allows Apple to rapidly expand its device ecosystem while maintaining control over product design and feature customization, without bearing the high costs of mass production and after-sales service.
In recent weeks, LG has been submitting certification applications to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the product certification body UL Solutions for these devices. The filing list includes LG wired video doorbells, floodlight cameras, plug-in outdoor and indoor cameras, smart locks, smart thermostats, and temperature sensors. Most of the devices support both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and are compatible with the Thread and Matter smart home communication protocols. The smart door lock additionally supports Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology, allowing it to automatically unlock when the user approaches their front door.
For Apple, this new home ecosystem represents the formal relaunch of the HomeKit platform. Apple introduced the HomeKit platform as early as 2014, but compared to similar offerings from Amazon and Google, the platform has failed to gain a foothold in the market. According to sources familiar with the matter, Apple hopes to reactivate its smart home business by relying on this batch of smart home hardware and the Siri AI assistant. Apple has also planned more self-developed products, including a home monitoring device focused on privacy protection and a smart home hub with a robotic arm.
LG's development progress for this batch of devices lags behind Apple's self-developed devices, with an estimated minimum of several months before they are available to consumers. These products also represent a major expansion of LG's own smart home business, marking the company's first launch of indoor cameras in nearly a decade, and its first-ever launch of outdoor cameras, thermostats, floodlight cameras, and video doorbells in its history. The smart lock is also the first smart lock LG has ever offered for sale outside of the Korean market.
Following this collaboration, Apple and LG will enter into more direct market competition with Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest. The latter two have long since launched full suites of similar devices and have established a solid position in the smart home market. Notably, Apple and LG have a long-standing collaborative relationship, with LG Display supplying displays for many of Apple's devices, and the two companies having previously collaborated in areas such as display and television service integration.
