Apple has been slow to the smart home party, but if Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman’s report holds, fall is about to get very interesting for anyone who has been waiting for a real HomePod hub. I just wish that Apple would send me one of each of these so that I can form my own opinions. That being said, this is classic Apple.
Apple tends to wait and watch a market before launching anything. They see what works, what doesn’t, and how they can differentiate while integrating into the Apple ecosystem. Some products are successful (iPhone, iPad, Macs, Apple TV), while others are less successful (Vision Pro).
The launch of a smart home hub makes a ton of sense, especially as Siri gets upgraded to Siri Intelligence. Siri (AI) is now integrated across devices, and extending it to a hub is just logical. I’m always wary of 1st-generation products, but Apple has been sitting on this hub for a long time, so I’m going to guess that it might be quite good.