ADT Acquires Home Automation Provider
IOTAS, a provider of smart home technology for multi-family residences announced it would be acquired by security provider ADT earlier this month. IOTAS focuses primarily on smart home technology for apartments and other multi-family housing units. The company provides a range of solutions including smart locks, voice control, lighting, climate control, and leak detection via its mobile app.
The NPD Take:
- This is a smart move by ADT to capture a piece of the elusive renter market. While sales of home automation products continue to grow year over year, household adoption among renters, lower income consumers, and those who live in homes other than single-family houses is lagging.
- IOTAS strategy for serving these markets via easy to install and use solutions will help ADT acquire subscribers and drive new hardware sales.
Will iPads Lose HomeKit Hub Control?
With the launch of iOS 16 coming this Fall, there are indications that iPads will no longer act as smart home hubs to control HomeKit devices. A discovery in the source code of iOS 16 Beta 2 indicates this change. Further, when researchers updated iPad devices to the new operating system, a message in the Home app appears, reading “iPad will no longer be supported as a home hub here”. Apple further confirms this change, adding a notification reading “only Apple TVs and HomePod devices can be used as home hubs.”
The NPD Take:
- This update comes amid a larger overhaul of the Home App in iOS 16 . Further, the elimination of the iPad as a hub for onboarding new devices and deeper system monitoring comes just as Apple and other technology companies have joined the Matter standard and the adoption of the new spec likely means the iPad’s hub functionality is duplicative.
- This is also an effort to drive more home automation tasks and applications through Apple’s non-iOS home-centric devices Apple TV and HomePod.