IKEA Announces Affordable Smart Lighting Product Range

Are they as difficult to assemble like my Fahrvehrblüten chair and Kromsaänerbuigler ottoman?

Oh great, another set of home automation equipment that doesn't use HomeKit and requires yet another app

Hue has its own app, too.

Yeah, Hue started with it's own app and then migrated to homekit a year or so ago. That's when they released a HomeKit-compatible hub. Upgrading to HomeKit was a simple $40 hub replacement.
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Why does it need to support Homekit?

Hey Siri (amongst other things)

Curious, since it's using ZigBee, if the bulbs will play nice with the Hue base station like some (but not all, I believe) other ZigBee bulbs do. There aren't enough (any??) cooler 3-4000K smart bulbs on the market and I'd be very interested in the 4K setting if it's bright enough (800ish lumens). It sucks that even non-smart LED bulbs are generally only available in too-yellow 2700K and too-cool 5000K.

I know some 5000K smart bulbs exist, but they're just too cool for me. And the Hue bulbs with a sliding scale temperature are too dim (500-600ish lumens, depending on the temp setting) and are twice the price. Hope this by chance works!

I don't think it will, as per the article "includes two bulbs, a remote, and a gateway hub to connect everything to the app." makes me think it has its own app,

Nearly every mainstream HomeKit-capable product has its own app. I don't follow your thinking.
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The key words here from the quote in the article are 'affordable' and 'expensive'. HomeKit integration has a cost in terms of the need to incorporate a custom HomeKit authentication/encryption chip in each and every device, plus the Apple licensing cost for HomeKit.

Plus not aligning yourself to HomeKit means you can use other mobile operating systems on the same solution...

What's the compelling reason for using HomeKit then? Sounds like using HomeKit means a device that is more expensive to produce, has a per device licensing cost and only supports iOS.

Wow -- some real misconceptions here. For a product to support HomeKit in no way means other operating systems are locked out. They just don't have HomeKit. Nearly everything in my home is HomeKit compatible but also works just fine with any other operating system. Adding a feature doesn't necessarily mean you have to take others away, and it certainly doesn't with HomeKit.

Also, HomeKit does not require that "each and every device" have a special chip. Take Philips Hue, for example (a product that also supports my above point). Individual lights don't connect at all to HomeKit. Rather, they connect to the Hue bridge, which is HomeKit capable. That bridge manages the HomeKit integration and the security features (etc.). Case in point, I bought my entire Hue setup before Philips supported HomeKit. Once they added that support, I needed only to upgrade my bridge, at which point every light in my house became accessible via HomeKit.
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Why does it need to support Homekit?

It probably doesn't to sell decently well, and Ikea may have made the right choice for their needs. But what you're hearing here is that many people really like what HomeKit has to offer and wouldn't welcome a "smart home" product into their own homes if it didn't offer HomeKit support. If you're not worried about device security (I doubt most people are) and just want lights that Alexa or whatever can turn on and off, then these should be fine. Many people here want more.

Oh great, another set of home automation equipment that doesn't use HomeKit and requires yet another app

Why does it need to support Homekit?

If it uses HomeKit it will sell bananas

Oh great, another set of home automation equipment that doesn't use HomeKit and requires yet another app

Well the world does not revolve around Apple. ...(thankfully).

Philips hue work beautifully even whithout using homekit (as I am doing on Android) and as for the app, I barely have to use it as lights can be turned on and off from the notification bar.....hardly a "bad thing".

Hey Siri (amongst other things)

That's more an issue with Siri than Homekit compatibility..I mean Apple want you to pay them to make it Homekit compatible so you can use Siri...

On Android I can use Google now with my hue wihotut "homekit".

So yes Apple is forcing you to buy more expensive "homekit" devices in order to use a function that would not require homekit at all...

Sounds like using HomeKit means a device that is more expensive to produce, has a per device licensing cost and only supports iOS.

More expensive yes, only support iOS no as hue is homekit compatible but works perfectly on Android (without using homekit .....that's for sure :p).

Hey IKEA, no HomeKit, no sale!

I am sure they'll survive, especially as they can bundle some on some furniture, and they'll get you hooked with their system...

... I'd be very interested in the 4K setting if it's bright enough (800ish lumens). It sucks that even non-smart LED bulbs are generally only available in too-yellow 2700K and too-cool 5000K.

I know some 5000K smart bulbs exist, but they're just too cool for me. And the Hue bulbs with a sliding scale temperature are too dim (500-600ish lumens, depending on the temp setting) and are twice the price.

FWIW, the Hue "White Ambience" bulbs ('http://www2.meethue.com/en-us/productdetail/philips-hue-white-ambiance-a19-single-bulb#specifications') (the ones where you can adjust the color temperature of "white" produced), peak at 800 lumens @ 4000K, for considerably less than their full color bulbs. Speaking of which, the gen2/gen3 Hue "White and Color Ambiance" bulbs ('http://www2.meethue.com/en-us/productdetail/philips-hue-white-and-color-ambiance---extension-bulbs#specifications') also peak at 800 lumens @ 4000K.