According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will no longer be launching its rumored smart home hub this year. This is due to all of the delays with Apple Intelligence Siri, and Apple reportedly is considering delaying the launch until sometime in 2026 until some of the engineering challenges are figured out.
This news doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise, but it’s still a bit of a bummer.
To recap, Apple is working on an all-new product category for your home. Think like an Echo Show or Google Nest Hub, but made by Apple. It was supposed to feature a 7-inch square display, Apple Intelligence, and an all-new operating system that would’ve helped it fit in your home. It would’ve been heavily reliant on Apple Intelligence and App Intents.
Now, a plethora of internal challenges with Siri have occurred. The company has officially delayed the launch of its already-announced Siri features from this spring to sometime “in the coming year.” Apple has also done some internal restructuring, and is reportedly considering rebuilding the features from scratch.
Apple’s first leap into consumer AI hasn’t been going great, to say the least.
Apple was initially planning for a March launch. Then, Gurman reported on some delays, saying that the product would launch in April or later. Now, it’s sounding much more dire:
Initially, there was some optimism that the snags would only result in the smart home hub shipping a few months later — say, around the time of the new iPhones. Now the company is considering a delay until 2026, when the Siri features are expected to land. If that happens, it’ll be a disappointment to Apple fans looking for the company to finally make a larger push into the smart home. But this product probably won’t make a big difference in terms of revenue. It’s really just an Apple version of the Google Nest Hub.
Hopefully, Apple won’t end up canning this product. Gurman makes reference to the fact that this product is just the stepping stone to an eventual product with a robotic arm and more features, but that’ll undoubtedly be more expensive. It’d be really nice to see Apple start on the entry level.
My favorite Apple accessories on Amazon:
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