A new report from Bloomberg highlights Apple’s ambitions in the smart home segment since, according to sources close to it, the company is developing two new hardware products related to Apple TV, although these were in the initial stages.
The first of them will be an Apple TV decoder with additional functions, and the second will be a smart screen similar to Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub, that is, both with Siri as a virtual assistant and with video conferencing capabilities, among other possibilities.
Incentivizing your smart home ecosystem
According to Bloomberg, the first product combine the Apple TV set-top box with a HomePod speaker and a webcam, designed to be connected to the home TV to work similar to smart soundbars from other companies, and even like Facebook’s Portal TV to carry out video conferencing together with the management of connected products and the usual functions of Apple TV set-top boxes.
And the second product It is a smart screen similar to those of Amazon and Google, which in practice would be like pairing an iPad with a HomePod speaker, also integrating a webcam for video conferencing, with the claim of becoming a high-end device, to the point that Apple would have considered the use of a robotic arm to track the user throughout the room, similar to what the Amazon Echo 2020 offers.
Obviously, these two products will lead to Siri as a virtual assistant.
Apple could decide along the way to discontinue development of any of them, or even change some of the key features.
It is likely that we will not know anything about the next WWDC 2021, which is set to be held from June 7 to 11, for which even Apple has not wanted to offer comments on the matter at instances of the publication itself.
It is clear that Apple has to work very hard for its smart home ecosystem to increase its market share to a significant share, a category that is resisting it over the years, while rival companies continue to bring news of annually, gaining visibility.
In fact, Apple discontinued development of the HomePod in favor of the HomePod Mini, while Apple TV set-top boxes have not been updated for three years now.
These two new products would be the first fruits of the merger of the HomePod and Apple TV engineering groups into one only carried out during the past year.
