Apple is apparently planning to expand its range of smart home control centers. In addition to HomePod and Apple TV, there will soon be a “Smart Display”. A new multimedia box with more power is also planned for 2024. This was reported by the financial news agency Bloomberg on Thursday night.
A mountable iPad
There has been speculation for at least a year that Apple could merge its HomePod Siri speaker with an iPad-like device. Corresponding devices with speakers and touchscreens have long been available from competitors such as Google and Amazon. However, Apple’s new hardware is now supposed to be a flat, smart screen that can also be attached to walls or cupboards with a magnetic attachment.
The device is a kind of low-end iPad that you can use to control your HomeKit setup, writes Bloomberg. In addition to the smart home functions, Apple is also planning to display videos on the display and use it as a FaceTime device for communication via camera and microphone, it is said, citing informed circles. Apple is also said to have been considering “larger smart home displays”. The plans are apparently about products like Echo Show or Nest Hub competition that work according to this principle. The new HomePod 2, which Apple presented on Wednesday, comes without a real display again – the plans for combining iPad and HomePod seem to be on hold for the time being.
Apple TV even faster
In addition to the planned smart displays, Apple is also working on revising its multimedia box, according to Bloomberg. A new version with the current design is in the works for the first half of 2024, according to Bloomberg sources. However, the device is obviously not very exciting, the most important highlight is an even faster SoC.
Apple only slightly downsized the Apple TV 4K in October, installed an A15 processor from the iPhone 14 and gave the remote control a USB-C port for charging (instead of Lightning). So far, the hardware, which has been available in numerous incarnations for 15 years, only has a small market share – analysts such as Insider Intelligence believe in market shares of only 5 percent. The reason might be the comparatively high price. Apple has never given official sales figures.
(bsc)
