As Apple scrambles to include prices within the difficult financial system, the corporate has reportedly delayed its rumored HomePod with a built-in display screen till 2024.
- What’s taking place? Some 2023 tasks at Apple, together with a HomePod with a built-in display screen, have reportedly been pushed again till 2024.
- Why care? Sorry, no new HomePods in your this yr.
- What to do? Learn the supply article on Bloomberg.
A screen-equipped HomePod coming in 2024
Apple is slicing prices throughout the corporate, together with its analysis and improvement division. Within the newest version of his Energy On publication on Bloomberg, reporter Mark Gurman has discovered that the Cupertino large is “pulling each lever” amid companywide value cuts, together with suspending nonessential tasks reminiscent of its rumored HomePod speaker with an built-in touchscreen.
Right here’s an excerpt from the report:
Some tasks, together with new dwelling gadgets like a HomePod with a display screen, have been pushed again till subsequent yr on the earliest. That permits Apple to allocate its analysis and improvement finances to extra urgent tasks.
He doesn’t point out how the machine may make the most of an built-in show.
How a HomePod with a show may work
The HomePod and HomePod mini have round shows on the highest with easy LED lights (not precise bitmap screens) offering helpful standing data.
If we had been speculating, we’d say including a touchscreen would enhance the HomePod’s utility and switch the speaker right into a unbelievable good dwelling controller.
Reality be advised, we’ve by no means anticipated a screen-equipped HomePod to reach in 2023.
HomePods with screens, cameras and robotic arms
Properly-respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo just lately stated he anticipated a redesigned HomePod with a 7-inch show to ship in 2024. “The HomePod, which equips a panel, may allow tighter integration with Apple’s different {hardware} merchandise, marking a major shift within the firm’s good dwelling technique,” Kuo stated.
Gurman has now corroborated this data together with his sources.
To Gurman’s credit score, he has been saying for years that Apple is creating new HomePod fashions with built-in shows and cameras, much like Google’s Nest Hub and Amazon’s Echo Present audio system with shows. In March 2021, for instance, he stated new audio system with screens and cameras had been being developed in Apple’s labs however warned the launch was not imminent t.
The next month, Gurman ran a report saying Apple would mix a HomePod speaker with an iPad mounted on a robotic arm so the machine may observe the person across the room throughout video calls. And in April 2022, Gurman discovered {that a} future screen-equipped HomePod would mix HomePod and Apple TV performance and be outfitted with a FaceTime digital camera.
