Apple and CES 2018: a “virtual” presence that has been reduced this year

The Cupertino company has never been present
directly at CES in Las Vegas, however the Apple ecosystem has often been
the most cited and supported by the accessory manufacturers present at this
great annual mass of consumer tech innovation.

However this year at the 2018 edition of CES, Apple's virtual presence
wasless strong than previous years, at companies of
Cupertino has been supplanted by its two other major competitors and their
platforms, namely Amazon and Google.

Even if Apple has never been present at CES in Las Vegas, this major show
has been serving for several years asbarometer for health
the Apple ecosystem.

And in previous years, this barometer was rather in favor of Apple with
a large number of manufacturers and companies presenting iOS apps and
accessories for iPhone and iPad, but this was much less the case this
year.

All the companies that were present at CES were talking about
compatibility of their product with Amazon's Alexa platform, but also with
Google Home, andbarely mentioned the platform
d’Apple.

Apple's ecosystem no longer seems to be the favorite among companies
third parties, the latter turning instead to Amazon's Alexa platform, and
in 2nd that of Google which aremore open to
integration.

Even if Apple's virtual presence is less strong this year at CES, it
was nevertheless observedgrowing HomeKit support
compared to the previous year, made possible by Apple's desire to
simplify the HomeKit certification process, but also
by the arrival of iOS 11 which bringsimprovements to the
HomeKit home automation.

Before iOS 11, third-party manufacturers had to go through long
testing procedures, but also install a chip in their products to
certify, for wireless communication and exchange security.

But nowcertification is
more open, because developers can experiment with products even more
at the prototype stage with HomeKit, without even having obtained certification
MFi. In addition, HomeKit accounting can now be provided by software,
instead of having to install a chip in the product.

Apple's indirect presence may need to evolvewith the
HomePod launchwith manufacturers and partners who will speak
probably again from HomeKit and the Apple ecosystem, it will however
it is necessary for the Cupertino company to make efforts to open up concerning
the integration of Siri with devices other than its own.

Source

Deputy editor-in-chief, also known under the pseudonym Teza. Former video games journalist, who has been immersed in technology and Apple products since his very first iPhone 3GS in 2009. He has since worked for several American tech sites and now for iPhon.fr. Incidentally YouTuber and Apple product specialist on the MobileAddict channel. To contact me: maxime[a]iphon.fr