According to public information, MFi certification is an abbreviation of 'made for iPhone'made for iPod'made for iPad, which is an identification license of Apple Inc. for the manufacture of external accessories by its authorized accessory manufacturers. The above logo will appear on the package, with this logo of the product, which means that its quality in line with Apple's extremely demanding requirements.
In fact, although Apple MFi looks like an open system, but regardless of the certification process, cost or production requirements, MFi standards are very difficult to achieve.It is reported that the current global MFi certification through the rate of less than 3%! That is, 100 companies and Apple to apply, only 3 to obtain MFi certification.
First of all, Apple will conduct a rigorous review of the company applying for certification.Company in the application process, the need to repeatedly modify the product design until all parameters have reached the Apple standard, the entire process up to 3-5 months, and a brand only a total of 3 application opportunities!
Second, MFi certification application costs are quite high, MFi application process, respectively, twice certification, respectively, AGS and OTA certification, manufacturers need to submit a fee of 580 US dollars and about 1,500 US dollars, the last but not necessarily passed.
In addition, Apple also requested the company has requested, after the relevant sources said that if a mobile terminal parts company want to apply for MFi certification, it must have its own factory, and the factory can not be less than 2,000 square meters, the number of workers can not be less than 50, But also ERP system, which means that the general gadget factory do not want to get MFi certification.
It is worth noting that due to Apple's MFi certified companies charge fees and product sales commission, resulting in the market MFi certified accessories priced higher than non-certified accessories dozens of dollars.Therefore, some consumers questioned the price of 149 yuan Apple's original data line and the price of about 50 MFi certification data line, and the market only for more than 20 yuan of non-MFi data cable in the function of no difference, MFi certification there is not reasonable, it is not necessary.
Perhaps for third-party parts manufacturers, will question Apple's MFi certification unreasonable and unnecessary, but if you want to Apple HomeKit product development, grabbed the market in the smart home voice control opportunities, we must first get a strict Apple MFi certification.
HomeKit, a smart home platform released by Apple in 2014, is an intelligent product that adapts to this platform and can perform voice control by using Siri devices such as iPhone, iPad, and Apple watch etc. There is no doubt that smart home has good prospects for development. According to Austrian Victoria Consulting predicts that the overall smart home production in China will exceed one trillion yuan by 2020. So far, the more popular smart home platforms in the market include Apple's Homekit, Amazon Echo and Google Home.
In the same year, Apple introduced the HomeKit software project, which itself does not produce new products powered by the HomeKit system, but rather empowers third-party vendors to produce Apple-compliant and safety-compliant devices.The HomeKit-based products must be compatible with a range of compatible Encryption standard, the former will enable it to support HomeKit products from other vendors, while the latter can prevent hackers from taking over the computer system or stealing user information.
Earlier at the WWDC 17 Global Developers Conference in San Jose, Apple announced a series of reforms to HomeKit intended to encourage developers to make more use of this smart home platform.It is reported that without obtaining MFi certification, developers Prototypes of HomeKit devices can be tested experimentally, and the device can even include some homemade platforms such as Arduino or Raspberry Pi. However, the product still has to pass MFi certification when it is ready for sale in circulation.
Visible, for manufacturers, want to pass MFi certification, and based on the HomeKit platform development platform for smart home products is not easy.From the Apple official website you can see that currently compatible with HomeKit, Siri Smart home products that can be directly controlled include the Nanoleaf lighting system, the Philips Hue Lighting Bridge 2.0, the Chamberlain MyQ smart garage door controller, the Elgato Eve home monitoring system, and more.
At the same time, there are also more HomeKit smart home products released or listed in China, in addition to Haier and the United States launched the smart air conditioner products, as well as millet smart home devices, Duya smart curtains, Sileqi Sense smart locks, Logitech Pop , Radix La Doudou origin 2, Airmate HomeKit fans, and D-Link HD wide-angle camera and so on.
In addition to the terminal products, it is understood that the ESP32 chip of local Wi-Fi chip maker Leixin has also passed the strict Apple MFi certification, which is equivalent to the product development of Apple HomeKit based on the module products of the ESP32 chip. Access to Apple's smart home market tickets.Meanwhile, NXP, Marvell, Phytrex, Silicon Labs, Microchip (Microchip Technology) and other manufacturers Have also announced the availability of a HomeKit-enabled software development kit (SDK) that powers more home-based smart home products based on the HomeKit platform.