The best smart displays on the market right now are dominated by Amazon and Google. But the likes of the Amazon Echo Show 8 and Google Nest Hub may soon face competition from Apple, according to a new nugget of information courtesy of Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman states Apple is moving ahead with a project to develop a mounted display that would serve as a centralized smart home control center. Beyond just mounting an iPad atop a HomePod 2, Apple is believed to be creating a display with a full "robotic arm" that could tilt up and down, rotate 360-degrees and automatically orientate itself to face users in the room during a FaceTime call.
Thanks to a combination of Siri and Apple Intelligence, the device will be voice activated and capable of recognizing different people and, in all likelihood, interacting with Apple's numerous services, like Apple Music or HomeKit devices.
While this project has been talked about for a while now (we've reported on it before), Gurman claims the company is now prioritizing development. He says Apple has put it under the purview of Kevin Lynch, vice president of technology and there's even a tentative release window: 2026 or 2027.
The bad news? Pricing for the device could sit somewhere around the $1,000 mark, which would place it considerably higher on the spend-o-meter than Amazon's Echo Show 10 ($249, Amazon) which likewise features a display, speaker and rotation.
While Apple apparently has a team of "several hundred people" working on the device, these things are never a sure bet and details could change over the course of development. Remember the Apple Car?
Still, Apple already has a competent smart speaker, a burgeoning AI-infused voice assistant and the best tablet on the market. Combining the three into a new product to dethrone Amazon and Google's grip on smart home tech seems to make a lot of sense. Even without a fancy robotic arm.
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