Apple to join Samsung in creating smart home platform

Apple could be looking at releasing its own platform for smart home appliances at its World Wide Development Conference next week.

According to reports in the Financial Times and TechCrunch, the platform will allow iPhone, iPad or Apple TV owners to control their “smart” home appliances using an iOS device.

Devices able to be controlled through the smart appliance platform include lights, security systems and other household appliances.

Control of home appliances would be built into the users’ iOS device rather than through a string of third-party apps, with third party appliance makers such as Dropcam, Google/Nest and Philips able to gain official certification for their appliances from Apple.

The platform will allow users to do things like automatically switch their lights on when they arrive home or switch on an alarm system when they leave in the morning.

The news comes less than a week after Korean media outlets circulated rumours that Apple’s key rival, Samsung Electronics, is working on a smart home platform of its own, with the company demonstrating a single app smart home platform at IFA last year.