Apple eyeing smart home expansion with new homeOS powered devices: Report

Apple 's smart home ecosystem expansion: Apple is reportedly planning to expand its smart home lineup by launching at least two new devices. The first one of these devices is expected to be a smart display that would run the company's new homeOS operating system. This smart display will be similar to Amazon's Echo Show and Google 's Nest Hub smart display and enable users to control a variety of other smart devices in their homes along with supporting basic functionality such as alarms and playing music to name a few.

Apple 's ecosystem, unlike Google and Amazon, has been known to be a walled garden. This strategy hasn't helped the company's smart home devices gain popularity among the masses as they are not compatible with host of other devices in the smart home device ecosystem. However, the report suggests that Apple is planning to change that with Matter -- a protocol for the smart home devices that it has developed along with Amazon and Google. For the unversed, Matter is a freely available connectivity standard that aims to improve interoperability between smart home devices across manufacturers.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple 's upcoming smart display will also support come with artificial intelligence (AI)-based features. The company reportedly plans to use Apple Intelligence-powered Siri for offering home automation and controlling apps, media and devices.

Gurman says that Apple 's smart display will use AI to understand its surroundings, including factors such as who is looking at the screen and who is speaking. While there is no word on when Apple would unveil this device, it is expected to be priced around $1,000 (or Rs 84,000 approximately).

In addition to a smart display 'higher-end robotic tabletop device'. Nothing much is known about this device other than the fact that it will run homeOS and offer Apple Intelligence-powered features.

Beyond these devices, Apple is also planning launch Meta's Ray Ban-like smart glasses sometime in 2027. According to reports, Apple's smart glasses will be powered by Apple Intelligence and enable users to capture images and listen to music among other things. The company is also planning to launch AirPods with cameras in 2027. The cameras will help the Apple Intelligence in understanding the surroundings and answering users' queries based on those inputs.