CES 2019 has been a big deal for Apple, even if they aren’t actually present on the floor of the show. Samsung has previously announced support for AirPlay 2 and Homekit on their new line of TVs and LG and Sony aren’t far behind with news that sets from both manufacturers will support Apple content as well.
LG Senior Director of Home Entertainment Product Marketing Tim Alessi announced the support for AirPlay 2 and Homekit on their 2019 range of WebOS powered smart TVs during their CES Press conference, while Sony similarly announced that their Z9G Series, A9G Series, and X950G Series will support AirPlay 2 and Homekit ‘later this year’.
According to the Sony press release, the addition of AirPlay 2 and Homekit support will allow their customers to:
Watch movies and TV shows from iTunes and your other video apps, and view photos directly on your Sony TV. Listen to Apple Music, your iTunes music library, podcasts and your other music services on your television and AirPlay 2 speakers throughout the home — all in sync. HomeKit lets you easily and securely control smart home products using the Home app or by asking Siri on your Apple devices.
While adding support for AirPlay 2 and Homekit to LG’s WebOS based TVs should be a matter for them, how Sony will integrate the support on the Android TV powered sets will be interesting – though not a first, with HTC previously building Airplay support into their HTC 10 handset a couple of years back.
The announcement for release dates on the new TV sets will be coming closer to launch date here in Australia and we’ll have more then
In the smart home, Apple is lagging. Badly.
I don’t think there are many devices that Siri can control.