HomeKit serves as a software framework that lets users set up their iPhone to configure, communicate with, and control “smart-home” appliances. By designing rooms, items and actions in the HomeKit service, users can enable automatic actions in the house through a simple voice dictation to Siri or through apps. This is also a closed protocol which also means only registered vendors can have their products certified to work. In addition X10 was a protocol developed in developed in 1975 for home automation. Because it’s been around for a while the devices are somewhat cheaper but this also means that it doesn’t sport a connection to the newest protocols like HomeKit. I experimented with voice control years ago (circa 2000) with HomeSeer but was never satisified with the quality and the fact that I would have to wire microphones all over my house. Now that we have Siri and other fantastic voice recognition and this cool HomeKit integration the future for this old protocol is now.