Apple will announce a smart home hub called the HomeView on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, giving the project a name and a date after multiple reports across the past two years that such a device was in the works. TechCrunch reported that the hub runs Siri, carries an A18 chip and a display, and lets owners control their other smart home devices. Two models are planned, one for countertops and one for walls.
Apple has not confirmed the product, and no price or ship date has surfaced. The hub's commercial weight rests on rooms where Apple's earlier home products found little.
Apple has yet to gain much traction in the connected home, which is what makes the launch matter. HomeKit is a framework for other companies' devices, and it gained little ground with buyers. Apple's HomePod speaker fared no better. TechCrunch described the HomeView as Apple's most serious bet on the smart home to date. The difference is the display: this is a screen other devices report to, not another speaker in a corner.
Tuesday's event reaches past the hub.
Gurman reports updated Apple TV and HomePod mini models as well, and earlier this week he said Apple plans to announce an LG partnership covering a smart lock, a thermostat and a doorbell.
Taken together, the reports describe a company selling a control point more than a single gadget. A shelf of companion hardware arrives beside it, and the split between countertop and wall versions lets Apple price the device against two rooms in the same house. A wall unit and a countertop unit also imply two kinds of buyer, which is a wider net than a single speaker ever cast. No price has surfaced, and that number will decide whether the HomeView is a premium panel for households already committed to Apple or an accessory cheap enough to pull new ones in.
Siri and the A18 chip are pieces Apple already owns. The fixtures are not. A lock, a thermostat and a doorbell come through LG, which gives the hub something to control on day one and widens its reach beyond households that already bought into HomeKit or the HomePod. That first market is small, and the open question is whether buyers who skipped both come back for a screen. A hub that controls nothing sells as a display.