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Apple has several new smart home products in development, and Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman has provided a few new details about those devices in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter.
Gurman says Apple’s smart home device is planned to launch sometime next year and it will resemble the iconic G4 iMac design from two decades ago.
Apple’s upcoming home smart display will include old school iMac-like base. Apple is making progress developing its next entirely new product — a smart home screen — and it may be a little smaller than expected. The device will have a square display, I’m told, and be about the size of two iPhones side by side. The screen is positioned at an angle on a small base, making it reminiscent of the circular bottom of the iMac G4 from a couple of decades ago. It’s possible that the base will include speakers, essentially turning the device into a HomePod with a screen.
Gurman reiterated previous rumors that the new device will boast a “squarish” display, although he also indicated that the screen and overall device may be smaller than previously expected, with a screen being “about the size of two iPhones side by side.”
The smaller size is all part of Apple’s effort to keep pricing down, encouraging users to have units in scattered through different rooms around the house.
The device will run a new operating system that will include some iPad-like apps, including FaceTime, Notes and Calendar. It’s also meant to be well-suited to videos and photo slideshows. The device’s primary purpose, though, will be serving as a hub that can control various smart home accessories. Gurman says it’s “possible” that device will have speakers in its base, allowing it to serve as a HomePod-like device as well.
Gurman also described Apple’s larger smart home product, which he says has a larger screen mounted on robotic arm that can identify users and track them s they move around a room. This more upscale product, likely to be priced somewhere around $1,000, probably won’t hit the market before 2026.
