Everything We Know About Apple’s First Smart Display
New Apple products are always big news, especially new Apple products in new product categories like the smart display, which has been rumored for months. Leaks are becoming more frequent and detailed, and all signs now point to a launch sometime in 2025.
A smart display makes sense for Apple, given that the company already has several of the necessary components: a smart speaker in the form of the HomePod, the Siri smart assistant, a whole bunch of iPads , and its own smart home platform with HomeKit. Put it all together and you get a smart display.
Adding this device to the product line will also give Apple the opportunity to compete with Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub . These smart displays have proven useful as an evolution of smart speakers, providing video and image support, as well as a host of useful on-screen graphics—for example, music playback, driving directions, and smart home switching.
Apple hasn’t announced this new hardware, so it’s still not certain if it’s on the way, but leaks and rumors have now reached such a level that it would be a surprise if Apple didn’t release something like this soon. in the next year or so. That’s all I’ve heard so far.
What is an Apple Smart Display?
If you’re familiar with Amazon’s Echo Show 10—essentially a Fire tablet that rotates on top of an Echo speaker—then you’ve got some idea of what Apple is rumored to be up to with its smart display. It will bring HomePod audio functionality and Siri support, and add a screen on top.
This screen will likely let you do everything from watching Apple TV Plus shows to pressing buttons to control connected smart lights. Back in July, hidden code in Apple’s database hinted that this device was on the way – with software built on top of tvOS and homeOS and the A18 processor from the iPhone 16 .
We know what tvOS software can do on Apple TV boxes, and the A18 processor will also enable Apple Intelligence on the gadget – currently Siri with the addition of additional artificial intelligence and ChatGPT. It’s likely that you’ll be able to have more natural and nuanced conversations with a smart display than you can now with HomePod.
It’s unclear exactly how the HomePod and screen will combine: the display could even be something like a Google Pixel Tablet that you can take from a speaker dock and carry with you. Alternatively, it could be a smaller console that is not much larger than the touch console already installed on the HomePod speakers.
Even more leaks and rumors
Seoul Economic Daily recently reported that a 6.7-inch OLED display is being prepared for Apple’s smart display. This follows a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman – usually a reliable source of Apple leaks – that the device will be a six-inch screen that will mount on the wall rather than sit on the HomePod, making it more like Amazon’s eight-inch. Echo Hub than Echo Show.
According to Gurman, the device will “control home appliances, conduct video conferencing, and use artificial intelligence to navigate apps,” and will presumably have a smaller iPad-style speaker built into it to enable video calling and interaction with Siri. There is a possibility that the larger speaker could be sold as a separate dock if you want to remove the screen from the wall.
In fact, Apple may be testing multiple versions of this device—maybe even one with a screen on a robotic arm and an aesthetic similar to the old iMac G4 (that’s from Gurman, again ). Of course, these different versions will have different prices, and Apple is also talking about a “desktop robot” – that is, a HomePod with a screen that will also follow you around. Users could choose the device they prefer, but the software will essentially be the same and focused on the smart home.
Another prominent Apple analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, says that the “HomePod with display” will be an important part of Apple’s smart home strategy in the future: that it will be a “repositioning” of the HomePod line and will appear in the second half of 2025 (after its may have been teased at WWDC 2025 in June). Kuo also maintains a prediction of a six- to seven-inch screen, but there’s still a lot we don’t know, including the potential price.