Apple Bets on the Doorstep With an LG-Built Lock, Doorbell and Thermostat

Apple Bets on the Doorstep With an LG-Built Lock, Doorbell and Thermostat

Apple unveils its first real smart home hardware line

On Tuesday, October 13, 2026, Apple used a "Welcome home" event in New York City to introduce the Apple Home Collection: its first coherent line of smart home accessories, comprising a video doorbell, a smart deadbolt lock, four security cameras, two smart thermostats and temperature sensors, co-developed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric. The collection landed alongside the HomeView smart display, a new HomePod mini 2 and a fourth-generation Apple TV 4K.

Apple designs them, LG and Schneider build and support them

Despite Apple's deep involvement, the accessories ship under LG branding, with LG responsible for manufacturing and product support, while the Schneider thermostat sits under the Schneider Home name. Bloomberg first reported the partnership on October 6, and 9to5mac and The Verge随后 confirmed the details. The arrangement echoes Apple's earlier second-party supplier deals with Logitech and Belkin: expand the ecosystem quickly without carrying the cost of building and supporting every gadget itself.

The official pitch is one tap, one app, end-to-end encryption

Matthew Costello, Apple's vice president of hardware engineering, said the collection "makes it easy to choose smart home accessories with confidence," and that working closely with LG and Schneider, "we designed every accessory to work seamlessly with Apple Home, so managing your home is simple, reliable, and private." Pairing works like AirPods: bring an iPhone near a doorbell, camera, thermostat, sensor or lock and a splash screen appears. Everything is managed in the Home app, with no manufacturer app or separate account, and data is end-to-end encrypted so LG, Schneider and Apple itself cannot read it.

US prices run $39.95 to $399.95, with sales starting in December

US pricing: wired video doorbell $249.95, floodlight cam $399.95, outdoor cam $299.95, indoor cam $199.95, smart deadbolt lock $349.95, LG smart thermostat $199.95 and temperature sensor $39.95; Schneider Home's thermostat matches at $199.95 with a $39.95 room sensor. Availability begins in December, with select accessories arriving in early 2027. Starting this fall, US customers can pay extra for professional installation by ADT through Apple Retail.

The lock lets you in before you touch it

The LG Smart Deadbolt Lock uses Ultra Wideband to unlock automatically when a compatible iPhone or Apple Watch carrying a home key approaches, and it also offers tap-to-unlock, a PIN pad and a hidden backup key slot. It can sense whether the door is open, closed or ajar and alerts you even when locked, and guest access can be shared through the Home app for dog walkers or visiting family. Two finishes, Essence Graphite and Essence Silver, arrive first in the US and Canada.

Thermostats drop the schedule, cameras drop the subscription

Both thermostats use Adaptive Temperature, leaning on on-device intelligence from the iPhone to judge whether anyone is home, winding down for the night or away, so no manual scheduling is needed. They pull readings from sensors in multiple rooms, including those built into HomeView, HomePod and HomePod mini, support Matter, and use on-device wire detection across HVAC systems. The four LG cameras record up to 2.5K, recognize people, familiar faces, pets, vehicles and packages, and keep 10 days of event history in iCloud+ with no separate camera subscription: 50GB covers one camera, 200GB up to five, 2TB unlimited. Built-in storage keeps recording during Wi-Fi outages, and the indoor cam tilts away when someone gets home.

Why now: HomeKit never caught Alexa or Google

Apple has sold an interoperability layer since HomeKit launched in 2014, but long left the physical hardware — doorbells, locks, thermostats — to Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest. Bloomberg called this Apple's first full-scale push into a category the two rivals dominate, and one of the first major product expansions under CEO John Ternus. TechCrunch described the collection as a swipe at Amazon's smart home offerings.

Ring and Nest gain a better-funded rival

The backdrop matters. Google discontinued the standard Nest Hub in February 2026 and pulled the Nest Hub Max in May 2025, leaving Amazon's Echo Show as the only mass-market smart display still shipping new hardware — precisely the opening Apple's $299 HomeView walks into, though it will not sell in the EU yet because Siri AI is not available there. Ring founder Jamie Siminoff said he is not sweating the entry, vowing to keep winning by innovating.

December shelves and 2027 leftovers decide the verdict

HomeView preorders opened October 13 at $299, with tabletop and wall versions priced identically and Schneider mounts from $59.95 to $129.95, hitting shelves November 13. The $149 HomePod mini 2 arrives October 30 and the $299 Apple TV 4K on November 13. The real test comes in December: whether the rollout lands on time, whether the early-2027 accessories follow, and whether Apple's privacy story can move units against Ring and Nest's entrenched, cheaper ecosystems.