Apple’s smart home hub may be available by the end of this year, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
Rumors about the product began in 2022, but its release has been delayed due to issues with upgrading Siri, as previously reported by Gurman in March.
Gurman now expects a lower-end version to release “by the end of this year at the earliest,” with a more advanced version featuring a robotic arm to follow a year or two later, which is a “major priority at Apple.”
To meet the release window, Apple will reportedly abandon some “bolder features” with the robotic arm model, potentially pushing them back to later models.
The smart home hub’s design is rumored to draw from the HomePod and iPad, with a seven-inch display, a new operating system called homeOS, and a dashboard resembling the iPhone’s StandBy mode.
Apple will compete with existing smart home hubs like Amazon’s Echo lineup and Google’s Nest Hub, with the starting price for the robotic arm version potentially starting at $1,000.
