{"id":8453,"date":"2017-08-22T16:58:55","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T16:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/latch-adds-homekit-approved-smart-lock-to-its-enterprise-suite.html"},"modified":"2017-08-22T16:58:55","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T16:58:55","slug":"latch-adds-homekit-approved-smart-lock-to-its-enterprise-suite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/latch-adds-homekit-approved-smart-lock-to-its-enterprise-suite.html","title":{"rendered":"Latch adds HomeKit-approved smart lock to its enterprise suite"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

Smart access startup\u00a0Latch<\/a>, which targets the enterprise market in the U.S., selling smart lock hardware and access control services to building owners and operators, has added a third product to its portfolio.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Latch C\u2019 is notable as its first smart lock to be certified to work with HomeKit \u2014 Apple\u2019s hardware certification program for makers of connected devices wanting to integrate with the iOS ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Latch says it\u2019s also the first \u201centerprise-certified smart lock\u201d to work with HomeKit \u2014 enabling tenants living in apartments equipped with the device to connect it with other\u00a0HomeKit devices inside their apartments to, for example, have their smart bulbs come on automatically when they return.<\/p>\n

The Latch C also integrates into the iOS Home app and includes support for Siri \u2014 so a user could also ask the iOS voice assistant to open their door, say if they have their hands full of shopping. (Latch argues having an \u201cintent signal\u201d, such as voice or a tap, is more secure than \u2018passive unlock\u2019 approaches, just based on proximity detection.)<\/p>\n

The smart lock includes Bluetooth, Wi-fi and NFC, as well as a wide-angle camera, a touchscreen and additional sensor tech to support its various capabilities \u2014 including unlocking doors with smartphones, keycards and doorcodes (supporting shared and temporary access, such as with delivery providers); and enabling the monitoring and managing of guest access (through camera and digital log). Also still present: a traditional key slot should a user prefer to continue packing metal.<\/p>\n

The Latch C is designed to be installed on individual apartment doors that are equipped with a deadbolt, whereas Latch\u2019s\u00a0first product<\/a>, the Latch M, works with mortise locks. This\u00a0March<\/a>\u00a0the company also announced the Latch R: a reader-style electronic access product for building entrances, including lobby turnstiles and elevators.<\/p>\n

With all three products co-founder Luke Schoenfelder says Latch is able to address a full spectrum of multi-unit and residential buildings across the U.S. \u2014 noting, for example, that \u201cin some geographies, particularly in the American south and in some places in California, they use deadbolts in apartment buildings more than they use mortise locks\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Latch C could also be installed by building operators that lease standalone individual houses \u2014 with\u00a0Schoenfelder pointing to the likes of Invitation Homes, which leases 50,000 homes across the U.S., as another type of potential customer for its sales pitch. (It\u2019s worth noting Latch\u00a0counts<\/a> a number of funds\u00a0from the real estate sector among its investors as strategic backers.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mortise product [Latch M] is required by law in most major urban markets\u2026 and now, with the C, we\u2019re able to work on any apartment door in the U.S. \u2014 so this really just completes the suite,\u201d says Schoenfelder.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor places that don\u2019t require mortise locks they still have really stringent fire and building code requirements, and so the C is a deadbolt product that actually meets those requirements. We\u2019re really the first smart lock deadbolt to meet those requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Latch\u2019s full smart lock suite, from left to right: the Latch R, M and the newest addition, C<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an interesting development\u00a0last month<\/a>, Latch inked a deal with online retailer Jet to split the cost of installing its R smart locks on 1,000 urban residential buildings (with a total of 100,000 occupants) \u2014 revealing a strategy for growth that\u2019s focused on selling smart access as an enabler of other, already in-demand digital services.<\/p>\n

Latch presumably won Jet\u2019s financial (and marketing) buy-in by pitching its smart access product as an enabler of Jet\u2019s ecommerce \u2014 making it easier for the e-tailer to deliver to more customers (e.g. people in multi-apartment buildings without a receptionist or doorman to take parcels).<\/p>\n

Though it\u2019s also notable that Latch is part-funding some installations itself \u2014 to try to prime the pump for enterprise smart access in the residential buildings sector.<\/p>\n

Its overarching thesis for targeting buildings owners\/operators vs trying to convince consumers there\u2019s value in the faff (and risk) of installing and maintaining a smart lock themselves, is that b2b offers the\u00a0ability to accelerate uptake and buy-in of the technology and its benefits as deployments happen in large-scale chunks.<\/p>\n

So while individual consumers may well remain sceptical about handling the cost of a smart lock themselves, building owners and operators can offer reassuringly certified smart access as a value-add service to their tenants, incentivized by the prospect of happier tenants who value the ability to receive Jet deliveries or Amazon parcels, or share temporary access to their home with their babysitter, and so on.<\/p>\n

Albeit, if Latch\u2019s product ends up making it easier for tenants to sublet apartments via home-sharing platforms such as Airbnb the startup may face something of a balancing act to manage competing interests. After all, putting a smart lock on a door is really an invitation to a whole range of new behaviors \u2014 and while landlords may be happy to indulge some of them, others may prove a sticking point.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next generation of consumers, many of them are not going to own their own homes. And are not going to own their own homes for quite a bit of time. And so the desire to bring the HomeKit experience to them is one of the really exciting things about this partnership,\u201d says Schoenfelder. \u201cWe\u2019re able to bring this HomeKit experience to products and spaces that otherwise you wouldn\u2019t be able to have because if you don\u2019t own your own place you\u2019re not able to install a smart lock.\u201d<\/p>\n

He goes so far as to couch it as Latch giving Apple \u201ca unique opportunity to bring HomeKit to an enterprise context\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas, before, HomeKit has been really about a small group of users interacting with a product in a single family home, this allows us to have these really rich, many, many users to a single device [scenario]. So you can have one common area door that now 250 people are using, so you\u2019re getting that exposure to this ecosystem and to the possibilities in a really magnified way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really excited to align with [Apple\u2019s] vision for \u2014 and to help further \u2014 what the vision of the modern building looks,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

The Latch C is priced at $299 per lock, plus the cost of a Latch subscription software plan service. Latch is taking pre-orders for the C now, with the first buildings due to receive the device this fall, according to Schoenfelder. (He won\u2019t break out overall sales metrics across all the Latch locks as yet \u2014 claiming only that \u201cthey\u2019re good\u201d.)<\/p>\n

The startup, which includes two ex-Apple employees among its three co-founders (Schoenfelder; and chief design officer Thomas Meyerhoffer), has raised a total of $26M since being founded in 2014 \u2014 most recently topping up its Series A with a further $10M this May<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunchIt\/~3\/sgvdCCnmkVY\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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