Apple's IoT 'Good Housekeeping' Label: MFi

Junko Yoshida, EETimes
5/30/2014 09:00 AM EDT

MADISON, Wis. — Expect Apple to beat Google to the punch by unveiling its Internet of Things (IoT) strategy on its home front at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference next week in San Francisco.

Apple will lay out a plan to connect a plethora of IoT devices -- light bulbs, thermostats, door locks, washing machines, refrigerators -- with iPhone. Apple's iPhone will serve as a screen to set up each of these IoT devices (since some of them are physically too small to have a screen of their own) and automatically connect them to the home network, after which the iPhone becomes the smart home's all-purpose remote control.

EE Times has learned that the key to its execution is a wireless chip -- WiFi, Bluetooth, or Zigbee -- and an MCU, combined with a piece of software that allows each IoT device to be certified as an MFi (Made For iPhone/iPad/iPod) device.

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