Apple is reportedly planning to launch a smart home hub in 2026 or 2027.
The device resembles an iPad, with a display attached to an automated robotic arm.
One of the oddest devices I've ever tested is the Amazon Echo Show 10, whose screen follows your movements as you move around. And it could be the shape of iPads to come, if the device described in a new report by Bloomberg turns out to be a shipping product.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is working on an iPad-style device that's attached to a base by a thin robotic arm. It's planned to launch in 2026 or possibly 2027 and will have a price tag of around a thousand dollars, which is likely to mean a thousand pounds here in the UK. That's roughly four times the current street price of Amazon's mobile display and nearly seven times the price of the Echo Hub.
So what is Apple up to?
Apple's robot arm: what we know so far
According to Gurman, the device would have full 360-degree rotation as well as vertical tilting, and it would be your "smart home command center", a home security monitor and a video device for FaceTime calls. It would offer both Siri and Apple Intelligence, and it would recognise different voices.
With the exception of the physical movement, iPads are already capable of those things – and even the movement is sort-of possible via CentreStage, which adjusts the camera to follow your movements. CentreStage doesn't spin your iPad around 360 degrees, of course, but I do wonder if that's a feature worth spending £1,000 on an iPad for when you could buy an iPad Pro and a lazy Susan and still have money left over.
According to Gurman, the device has moved from experimental to priority and is being overseen by Kevin Lynch. Lynch oversaw the Apple Watch and, less successfully, the Apple Car. It's unclear whether this device is a different one to the rumoured HomePod with large display we've been hearing about for some time, or if it's the same product. But it seems that Apple is recommitting to smart home tech after some years of lagging behind Google and Amazon.
