Apple smart home hub delayed and it’s Siri’s fault – report

The delay to Apple’s AI overhaul of Siri has some collateral damage, according to reports. The expected smart home hub may also have been put on hold.

The word comes from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman who said Apple was potentially planning on revealing the Echo Show rival as soon as this month.

However, with Apple revealing an extended time scale for launching the smarter, agentic version of Siri until later this year at a time yet to be announced. It could be beyond the launch of iOS 19 in the autumn.

The new Siri features were said to be a major part of the new device because of its better understanding of personal context.

At WWDC 2024 last June Apple used the example of “when is my mum’s flight landing?” which would consult the Mail app with the flight details. The device owner would also be able to ask “what is our lunch plan?” and scan the Messages conversation, pertaining to those plans. The user would also be able to ask when they should leave to get mum from the airport, recognising context from multiple apps.

This could all be really handy within a smart home device.

“At one point, the company had hoped to announce this product in March,” Gurman wrote in his Power On newsletter published over the weekend. “But because the device, to an extent, relies on the delayed Siri capabilities, it has been postponed as well.”

The new product, whenever it may arrive, is expected to kickstart Apple’s more aggressive play in the smart home hardware space.

Intriguingly, reports suggest the design will be similar to the old iMac G4 model, effectively combining an iPad and a HomePod speaker. It could also include a video doorbell that would enable users to unlock their door with Face ID.

The roadmap is believed to include, eventually, a device with a robotic arm and then one which can follow you around the house picking up after you, which reports have suggested, will solve “first world problems.”

Worth waiting for?

Well I was really looking forward to this device and was planning to buy it, so it’s a shame to hear the new Siri capabilities might have pushed it back a few months – especially given rumours it might mimic that classic iMac design. There’s nothing quite like Apple’s first take on an existing category and all of those extra touches no-one else had thought to implement. I guess we’ll have to wait to find out what the company has in store.

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