Apple plans to launch an AI-powered display for your smart home as early as March 2025. You need to know this.
Apple comes with a screen for your smart home
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman Apple will release an AI-controlled smart home screen as early as March 2025. The six-inch screen resembles an iPad, but is more square and has thick bezels. There is a camera on the front for using FaceTime. There are also internal speakers for music playback and a built-in rechargeable battery.
Apple’s screen will come in silver and black, and will have touch functionality. The operating system looks like a mix of the iPhone’s standby mode and watchOS, but is mainly controlled by voice. Apple wants to integrate Apple Intelligence to access apps and control smart home products.
A multifunctional screen
Apple’s screen gets a customizable home screen with widgets for things like the weather, upcoming appointments, a slide show or important home controls. There’s a dock to launch apps and multiple systems in different rooms work as intercoms. Apple also wants to focus on security, by displaying alerts and camera images from connected smart home cameras.
Built-in sensors of Apple’s new screen can determine how close someone is to the screen. Based on this, the screen can adjust functions. For example, if no one is around, it can show the temperature. When someone approaches, it can switch to an interface to adjust the thermostat. It could also detect how many people are nearby using remote sensors that plug into sockets throughout the house.
A ‘command center’ on the wall or on the table
In addition to smart home controls and FaceTime functions, the screen gets several Apple apps, such as Safari, Apple News, Apple Music, Notes, Calendar and Photos. Yet there will be no special App Store. There will be various mounting options, such as a plate to attach the device to the wall and a base with additional speakers for use in a central location in the home.
Apple wants to position the smart screen as a ‘command center’ and thus strengthen Apple’s position in the smart home market. The smart home hub has been in development for more than three years and Tim Cook has now pushed for the device to be prioritized. It will be a standalone device, but it is planned to work with other Apple products and will require an iPhone for installation.
With the new screen, Apple wants to compete with Amazon and Google, which have similar devices. Amazon has the Echo Hub and Google has the Nest Hub Max. Apple will probably have to price the device the same as these products. The Echo Hub costs about 205 euros, the Nest Hub Max will cost you about 290 euros. In the future, Apple plans to release a robot version of the smart home hub that can move the screen itself, Gurman reports.
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