Apple doesn't need its own gadgets to dominate the smart home

If you believe the weekend rumors, Apple will announce a connected-home platform next week at WWDC. But before you get too excited about an iThermostat and an iFridge and an iCamera watching you sleep, consider this: If Apple does get into the home-automation market, that doesn't necessarily mean it'll make smart-home gadgets of its own.

Sure, the Nest thermostat looks like an Apple product; after all, it was designed and made by ex-Apple employees. But Apple doesnt need to start up its own smart-home hardware division, or even buy a company in that space. That's because plenty of companies are already making awesome connected-home products that solve real-world problems right now. And pretty much all of those gadgets work with the iPhone already.

So Apple could just ink partnership deals with the best players in the category. If it did so, the company would enter the market with a couple of potent weapons: tight iOS integration and the Apple Retail Store.

Consumers looking to smarten up their homes essentially have two options: You can go for a comprehensive managed system or just dip your toes in bit by bit.

Managed systems are popular if youre building a brand-new home and can install everything at once, or if youre comfortable turning to companies like Comcast, AT&T, or ADT to install the whole kit and kaboodle and then charge you monthly to monitor the service. I dont know about you, but my experiences with AT&T and Comcast dont make me super-eager to put them in charge of my entire home.

Nest cofounder Tony Fadell worked on the original iPod.

The bit-by-bit approach has the advantage that each gadget you add solves a particular problem. You get a Nest so you can save money on heating and cooling, you get a Dropcam so you can watch your home, and you get a Belkin WeMo plug so you can set up an IFTTT recipe that has the lamp in your foyer light up when you approach your front door. You know why youre installing each piece, rather than just chasing after the vague promise of a smart home.

The problem with bit-by-bit is that each of those gadgets uses its own app. Companies like Revolv and SmartThings are working on integrating multiple gadgets from different companies into a single easy-to-use app. But Apple could do them one better by adding smart gadget integration into iOS 8.

When Apple added Twitter integration to iOS 7, it suddenly became easier to share everything on Twitter, no matter what app you were in, and to log in to new apps with your Twitter credentials too. Adding similar integration for smart-home gadgets would be just as great, whether Apple wants to hand-pick preferred partners or to provide open APIs in the iOS 8 SDK. Either route would let these gadgets work with Siri, for starters, and provide a lot more benefits too.

iBeacons are already at work in retail locations, but Apples rumored smart-home platform could use them too.

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Apple doesn't need its own gadgets to dominate the smart home