There’s never been a firm release date for the HomeKit (though some partners were optimistic it’d be here by now), but you might not want to bank on getting your favorite graduating senior a complete system as a gift. Apple is withholding the launch of some devices until late summer, according to Fortune.
June 8 marks the start of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, a year after the company first announced HomeKit, but the system might not be quite ready for debut then. “One source says the code base associated with that part of the process ‘blew up’ and required way too much memory for smaller, battery-powered devices, so Apple is trying to shrink the code back down to size,” writes Fortune’s Stacey Higginbotham.
“HomeKit has been available [to developers] for just a few months, and we already have dozens of partners who have committed to bringing home accessories to market and we are looking forward to the first ones coming next month,” a spokesperson told Fortune, seeming to suggest we’ll at least hear something about the smart-home system in June.
Apple is expected to release its new Apple TV at the conference, and it may or not be the “hub” of its HomeKit. In addition to Apple Watch users being able to unlock their doors from their wrists, iPhone and iPad owners will be able to control their smart devices using Siri and their notification screens.
Smart-home-device makers have been scrambling to make their products compatible with HomeKit, and the list of devices keeps growing. Broadcom recently announced its software would create a bridge from Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as light bulbs, to users’ HomeKit-supported apps.
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