Will the new CEO realize Apple’s smart home potential?

It took Tim Cook years to launch Apple into new major hardware categories, e.g Smart watch. but John Ternus He could begin his tenure immediately with an ambitious new project: smart home devices.

All signs point to a strong lineup of new smart home devices likely coming this fall, putting Apple back in the game in a category where it has been very slow to ship new devices.

together Hardware guy on top Under Ternus, the chances of Apple committing fully to the smart home look much higher than they did under Cook. And while, according to Bloomberg Mark GurmanTernus was reluctant to invest deeply in smart home a decade ago — bearing “some responsibility” for Apple’s lag in the category — and today it is said to “lead the charge on three home products.”

Apple has been undercutting competitors in the smart home space for years. Amazon and Google have launched more than 40 Smart speakers and Smart screens Over the past decade, compared to Apple Three. However, at the time, Apple had built a privacy-focused, locally controlled platform for third-party devices. Uptake was initially slow from manufacturers, however Apple’s investment in the article It has stimulated significant growth over the past few years. However, there is still a scarcity of Apple Home devices. If the rumors are true, everything is about to change.

First, there “main board” It’s rumored to be a roughly 7-inch touchscreen smart display that features facial recognition, FaceTime, presence sensing, and control of smart home devices like lights, locks, and cameras. It is said that there is Two form factorswall-mounted version that can be installed on a coil Mount Mag Sword And one comes with a HomePod Mini-style speaker dock. A device like this could help solve one of the problems in a smart home: shared control. Everyone in the house can control it, and the house can interact similarly with everyone in it, instead of being controlled by one person and their phone.

Then there are rumors of dedicated Apple Home smart home devices, including… Home surveillance camerasA Video doorbelland A Independent sensor. The cameras feature facial and presence recognition sensors, and can feed into Apple Home and smarter Siri to provide context about who’s home when and where. This would be a crucial element in Fatah Benefits of artificial intelligence in the smart homeE, with the aim of creating More ambient experience From today’s command and control interface.

Privacy-focused cameras are the only way people will feel comfortable with this kind of visual awareness, and Apple already has a solution here. Connected cameras HomeKit secure video service It can be set to detect activity without allowing video streaming or recording.

Physical sensors will also play a role; The newer HomePods are rumored to be equipped with UWB Apple Home Sensor It can feed into the home security system and be key to the coordination of the entire home.

Then there’s the long-rumored home robot, a tabletop device with a display mounted on a robotic arm. Despite being a home device, this product also fits into the broader AI story. And based on a paper published last year, Apple might as well Explore personalization, Creating a type of physical AI that provides companionship as well as utility. This shift is something we’ll definitely see more of in the smart home, and Apple could be a leader here.

On the software side, there is a real need for standardization and focus The use case for artificial intelligence at home. new com. homeOS The tvOS and HomePod integration is long overdue, and could be the basis for an AI-powered brain to power your smart home. This could be revealed at WWDC next June, paving the way for an Apple Home renaissance. Other related rumors include a new chip coming to HomePod Mini 2 and next-generation Apple TVwhich can provide full support for new voice assistant features, as well as the ability to process most commands locally.

Apple’s failure to innovate in the field of smart home devices may be due to its low priority within the company. But now, several forces are converging. Matter, the smart home standard Apple helped developfinally provides true platform interoperability. The cancellation of the Apple Car project reportedly resulted in significant editing Apple Home Engineering Resources. Artificial intelligence is poised to reshape the functionality of smart homes.

Of course, Siri is the obvious drawback here. the Revamping long-stalled generative AI This should bring a smarter, more context-aware assistant into the home, which could be the glue that holds the devices together. But Apple seems to be working on fixing this issue. Amazon’s Alexa Plus and Google’s Gemini for Home have demonstrated the potential of LLM-powered smart home voice assistants, even if Reality is still very messy. When the smarter Siri arrives, expectations are high that Apple will follow its traditional playbook — entering late but brilliantly.

For Ternos, the challenge for the smart home now is implementation. With the pieces in place, Apple’s smart home could go from a side project to a core priority in Cupertino. The question is whether the new CEO can pull them together. And if he can channel Apple’s internal pursuit of perfection, which characterized the Cook era, into an engine that can take a potentially game-changing product category to fruition. For a company that has spent a decade building a foundation, now is the time to finally move on.