The HomePod, Apple’s sensible speaker, first launched 5 years in the past in February 2018. It was then joined in November 2020 by the HomePod mini. The unique HomePod was then discontinued in March 2021, which lead many to imagine it had been a failure, however Apple then reintroduced the bigger HomePod in January 2023, indicating that it wasn’t carried out with the sensible speaker market but. Certainly, rumors recommend that Apple has one other replace to the HomePod coming: a HomePod with a display screen.
The rumor that Apple intends to launch a brand new HomePod geared up with a display screen and mixing options from different Apple units isn’t a brand new one. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote about Apple’s plans for a HomePod with a display screen again in 2021 when he advised that Apple was creating “new audio system with screens and cameras”. He additionally advised {that a} product that combines the Apple TV and HomePod might be on the way in which.
Learn on to search out out what’s in retailer for the HomePod and the way Apple is enhancing its speaker, with rumors indicating that the following mannequin could also be bigger, function a display screen and provide the flexibility to host convention calls.
HomePod with display screen: Launch date
When Gurman first spoke of Apple’s plans for a HomePod with display screen in March 2021 he claimed that the launch was not imminent. He even warned that the brand new product would possibly by no means hit the market. Nevertheless, over the months and years since that first report, the proof has been mounting that there’s an Apple HomePod with a show within the pipeline.
In a Bloomberg report from Gurman in Might 2021 he additionally briefly talked about Apple’s plans to so promote hybrid HomePod merchandise.
And in April 2022 Gurman referred to those plans once more, stating that Apple is “completely” nonetheless engaged on a brand new HomePod, which Gurman says will mix a HomePod, Apple TV, and FaceTime digital camera right into a single “mixture product will most likely be on the heart of Apple’s strategy.”
Gurman isn’t alone in his expectation {that a} new HomePod with display screen is coming. In March 2023 analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote about Apple’s smart-home plans. He indicated that Apple “will unveil a redesigned HomePod that includes a 7-inch panel in 1H24,” and that this gadget “might allow tighter integration with Apple’s different {hardware} merchandise.” Kuo provides the anticipated launch date for the HomePod with display screen as the primary half of 2024.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo tweeted in Might 2022 that Apple was engaged on a brand new HomePod for 2022 or early in 2023. Nevertheless, the HomePod he predicted then was the replace to the HomePod that arrived in January 2023. See: HomePod vs HomePod mini to see how the 2 fashions examine. Kuo made some fascinating insights to Apple’s plans for this class although: “Good audio system are undoubtedly one of many important components of the house ecosystem.”
HomePod with display screen: Design
Based on Ming-Chi Kuo in March 2023, Apple “will unveil a redesigned HomePod that includes a 7-inch panel”. That’s not a lot smaller than the iPad mini, which has a 8.3-inch show. (By the way an replace to the iPad mini is anticipated in 2023).
This tallies with what Gurman initially advised in April 2021. He described a high-end speaker with a contact display screen would mix an iPad with a HomePod speaker and a digital camera mounted on a robotic arm that might comply with the consumer across the room throughout a video chat. The display screen would additionally provide multi-touch performance.
To get an thought of how this might look we’d like solely look to the Amazon Echo Present 10, which mixes a show that strikes mechanically with Amazon’s speaker. The Echo Present 10 prices $249.99 / £259.99.
Foundry / Jim Martin
Swiss web site Helpful Abovergleich and designer Eric Huismann have created a sequence of idea illustrations of how this new era of HomePod might look. They’ve give you idea designs for 2 separate units: the HomePod TV (a combination of the HomePod and the Apple TV) and the HomePod Present (a HomePod with a touchscreen show).
Right here’s how they picture the HomePod Present – a speaker with a digital camera and a touchscreen – might look.
HomePod with display screen: Spec & Options
Right here’s what we will count on by way of specs and options for the HomePod with show:
Processor
The HomePod that launched in January 2023 featured the identical S7 chip because the Apple Watch Collection 7. We count on {that a} HomePod with a display screen will us a extra highly effective processor, maybe the identical chip because the iPad mini, which presently options the A15.
Digicam
The brand new HomePod might function a digital camera, as is rumoured within the Bloomberg piece from 2021. With a digital camera integrated into the HomePod it will be potential to take part in a video convention on the TV display screen.
A digital camera may be used to recognise gestures. Some years in the past a patent was filed that associated to a future HomePod that might interpret 3D hand gestures.
That patent describes a HomePod that may “interpret three-dimensional hand gestures as a way of controlling the gadget in order to execute an motion or operate.” See extra on Patently Apple.
Multi-touch show
We’re hoping that Apple will give us one thing that may compete with the Echo Present, so we will view YouTube movies and use apps on the brand new hybrid gadget. Maybe we gained’t get the show we hope for, however a extra interactive show than the one we have now presently can be nice. We’d wish to see extra than simply quantity controls and a Siri animation.
Why the HomePod wants a display screen
We really feel that the absence of a display screen – and over-reliance on Siri – has been one of many greatest failings of the HomePod. We really feel {that a} display screen would assist customers work together with the gadget in addition to open it up as a platform for watching different content material, corresponding to YouTube movies and information studies.
If Apple does launch a HomePod with a display screen it is going to assist the HomePod compete with units from Google and Amazon which have mixed a speaker with a display screen for a while, such because the Amazon Echo Present. You should buy the Echo Present 10 on Amazon U.S. for $249.99 or Amazon U.Ok. for £259.99 and the Echo Present 15 on Amazon U.S. for $239.99 or Amazon U.Ok. for £239.99.)
Will Apple mix HomePod and Apple TV?
A Bloomberg report from Gurman again in April 2021 mentioned Apple’s plans for 2 future Apple merchandise which do appear to point that Apple was not less than contemplating making a HomePod with a display screen. These rumored merchandise included:
- A product that fuses the HomePod and Apple TV with a digital camera that might be used for video conferencing by way of the TV display screen.
- A product that mixes a sensible speaker with a contact display screen – it might mix an iPad with a HomePod and mount a digital camera on a robotic arm that might truly comply with the consumer across the room throughout a video chat.
Combining the HomePod and Apple TV does appear like one thing that’s being investigated by Apple. The Bloomberg report above mentions it, however that wasn’t the primary indication that one thing like this was deliberate.
In April 2020 it emerged that Apple had switched the software program on the HomePod from iOS to tvOS. Such a transfer might make it even simpler to merge these merchandise sooner or later.
What’s much less apparent is what Apple would obtain by combining the HomePod and Apple TV, these on the lookout for audio enhancements can already use the HomePod because the audio output of their Apple TV.
Swiss web site Helpful Abovergleich did give you an illustration of how this would possibly look (above). They name this one the HomePod TV–the bar beneath the TV turns into not solely the hub for TV, web and sensible units, but additionally a sound system with assist for requirements corresponding to Dolby Atmos and Apple Lossless.
For extra concepts about how Apple would possibly reinvent the HomePod learn: How the HomePod may be Apple’s new iPod: Enjoyable, common, and easy. Plus, Might Apple’s rumored HomePod truly be a tiny Studio Show? and Why Apple wants a HomePod with display screen.
