Apple’s smart home strategy will ramp up by 2025. Yesterday, BGR covered Bloomberg‘s new report, which said that Apple wants to introduce a wall-mounted display as soon as March 2025 that will be able to control apps, make video conference calls, and use AI to complete tasks on its own.
According to the report, the device will feature a 6-inch screen and “look like a square iPad.” If you stack two iPhones next to each other, you can get a general idea of the rumored device’s size. Above the screen is a camera, and the display will also ship with a rechargeable battery and internal speakers. When it launches, you’ll supposedly be able to order the smart display in black and silver.
The interface is expected to combine elements of watchOS and the StandBy mode that Apple rolled out in iOS 17 last year. That said, Apple is convinced that users will rely on voice commands to control the device, as it will include Siri and Apple Intelligence.
However, while Mark Gurman, BGR, and many outlets try to describe Apple’s smart home strategy as an all-new lineup, I can only read “iPad, smaller iPad, iPad with HomePod, HomePod with iPad,” and so on. After all, Apple’s takes on Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s smart home devices are already here.
The iPad can be a home hub. Theoretically, the HomePod could be Apple’s best Apple Intelligence device, and the iPhone already works as the perfect Eco Show device when used in StandBy Mode. Still, Apple is trying an all-new solution by combining products everyone already has.
My take: We actually need HomePod devices capable of running Apple Intelligence – once this AI platform works as intended.
Despite that, there’s only one smart home device that can actually be useful, even though it will do what every other Apple device does: The display with a robotic limb, similar to an iMac G4, could be the ultimate home hub. However, don’t we all have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac with a Center Stage, a big enough display, and great speakers? Well, we do.
Eventually, Apple plans to release its own smart cameras and ramp up its smart home strategy. Only time will tell if the company will succeed in this market. At this moment, it only seems Apple is trying to sell the same products in a different package without improving what’s already here.
Fortunately, 2025 is just around the corner.
