Apple Will Sell App-Enabled, Color-Changing Light Bulbs
When you think of Apple, you think of iPhones or iPods, or perhaps a MacBook, but you probably don't think about home automation. That may change starting Tuesday, when Philips starts selling its Hue light bulbs exclusively …
Context & Ripple Effects
Philips Hue enters an emerging app-controlled-lighting category already signaled by the app-controlled LIFX bulb. Apple’s exclusive retail role gives Philips a direct route to customers already buying Apple hardware, making the phone-and-tablet app part of the lighting product’s appeal.
First-order effects
- Philips gains exclusive access to Apple’s sales channel for Hue at launch, while Apple adds a connected-home product outside its established iPhone, iPod and Mac lineup.
- Apple customers can buy Hue through Apple rather than seeking a separate home-automation retailer, tightening the link between the bulbs and Apple devices used to control them.
Second-order effects
- LIFX and other app-controlled bulb makers face a distribution disadvantage against Hue’s Apple retail placement, increasing the importance of their own retail partnerships and app experience.
- Philips’ launch turns Apple retail into a meaningful route to market for connected-home accessories, not solely a storefront for Apple-branded hardware.
Third-order effects
- If exclusive device-retail partnerships become a repeatable route to market, connected-home vendors may compete as much for control of the customer interface and shelf access as for the hardware itself.
- The category points toward household fixtures being sold as software-controlled accessories, with the smartphone or tablet serving as the primary control layer.
The trend: Connected-home products are beginning to use mobile-device ecosystems and consumer-electronics retail channels to make everyday hardware programmable.