Unlike Google or Amazon, Apple’s smart home efforts have been lukewarm at best. The company dipped its toes in the water with the HomePod and HomePod mini, but neither device was met with much fanfare. However, it is rumored that Apple will try again later this year with its very first smart home hub.
Apple’s first smart home hub
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman shared in the latest issue of his Power On newsletter that he expects Apple to debut its first smart home hub by the end of the year. In the Q&A section of his newsletter, Gurman talks about a couple of Apple’s upcoming smart home efforts, one of which is an iPad-like device with a robotic arm.
He also mentions another lower-end smart home product that could launch by the end of 2025. “A lower-end version — a smart screen code-named J490 that doesn’t have an arm — has been delayed due to problems with Siri. I expect J490 to finally hit the market by the end of this year at the earliest (it remains up in the air), with the robotic version following a year or two later.”
We have heard rumors that Apple is working on new smart home devices. However, we have to wonder if it’s too little, too late for the Cupertino company. Google and Amazon already have their own smart home hubs that are doing pretty well and are relatively inexpensive.
Considering how much Apple dared to charge customers for the HomePod, we’d hate to think how much this smart home hub could cost. After all, if you want to own an Apple product, be prepared to fork out the “Apple tax”.
Will it be relevant?
Also, there’s less reason to buy an Apple-made smart home hub. Apple is part of the Matter alliance, which aims to consolidate and unify smart home platforms. This means that there’s no real need to own an Apple hub to control your smart home products.
Also, we don’t know when exactly this new product will launch. Apple will host its annual iPhone event later this year around September. So, there’s a chance it could be announced then. An alternative possibility is even later in the year, when Apple usually refreshes its iPad and Mac products. Either way, we’ll have to wait and see. So, until then, be sure to take this with a grain of salt.
