Apple on Tuesday announced a home hub called HomeView, marking CEO John Ternus’ first launch outside of iPhones since he took over from Tim Cook at the start of September.

Apple said the device with a 7-inch screen was designed to be mounted on a wall or placed on a table. It’s designed for multiple people in a household, and will recognize the user by their face to display pertinent information. It starts at $299 and ships on Nov. 13.

Tuesday’s launch event is the second under Ternus, who was the company’s longtime hardware boss before being promoted to CEO. Last month, Apple announced new models of its most important product, the iPhone, including a foldable model called the Duo that retails for nearly $2,000.

Apple also announced new Apple TV and HomePod hardware on Tuesday. The new Apple TV 4K costs $299 and has a redesigned remote that can play a sound if it is lost. Apple’s HomePod Mini speaker comes in new colors and costs $149, a slight increase over its previous $129 price.

The products announced Tuesday are less critical for Apple than the iPhone, and investors remain focused on iPhone sales, but the accessories were positioned on Tuesday as a showcase for the company’s new Siri abilities released last month.

Apple said HomeView features Siri AI, which can answer a broad range of questions. Users will be able to converse with Siri, and their conversations will continue on their iPhone or iPad. It has a built-in speaker for playing music.

“It recognizes your face to shift from a household screen to your own experience, fills the room with incredible sound, keeps you connected to the people who matter most with FaceTime, and makes it easy to control your smart home,” Apple’s marketing head Greg Joswiak said in a statement.

Apple said that HomeView will show information from the Messages, Photos, Calendar, and Reminders apps based on who is using the device, powered by Apple Intelligence. It can also be used to make FaceTime calls and as a digital photo frame. It’s equipped with an Apple A18 chip. It supports up to six users.

Apple TV, HomePods, and HomeView are included in Apple’s Wearables, Home, and Accessories category, which reported $7.88 billion in sales in the most recent quarter ended June, which was about 7% of the company’s total revenue. The category also includes wireless headphones like AirPods and the Apple Watch.

But while Apple has dabbled in home products and platforms in the past, Tuesday’s announcement shows Apple is making its home products a higher priority under Ternus.

“Apple always waits for an ecosystem to develop first until they are positive they can provide a stellar user experience,” said Jennifer Kent, principal analyst at Parks Associates, which conducts research on the connected home.

Apple said its new products, including HomeView, can be used as a smart home hub, coordinating notifications and actions in the home and working with a range of products, including new locks, doorbells, and cameras from LG Electronics and Schneider Electric.

Apple is emphasizing privacy, and said on Tuesday that its Apple Home Collection accessories encrypt data so that only the user and people they share with can see it. Other smart home cameras, for example, maintain limited access to user video, or store it on servers.

“They are going above and beyond what a lot of other companies do when it comes to privacy and security protections,” Kent said.

Apple’s integration with the smart home is not just about sales, but also helps further lock customers into its ecosystem. People who use multiple Apple products and connections are less likely to switch to an Android phone.

HomeView can also become a smart home dashboard, Apple said. It can be used to view camera feeds, adjust the thermostat, or lock connected doors around the house.

Apple said that setting up a new smart home device takes one tap from the user’s iPhone.

Tuesday’s launch shows Apple’s confidence as it launches new product categories. But the broader consumer electronics industry has been dealing with price increases and demand deterioration related to component shortages in memory and storage. It also comes as Ternus has reportedly pushed the company to release products faster.

Apple’s new Apple TV 4K got a price hike from $199 to $299, and follows a similar price increase earlier this year, after Cook said that memory costs for Apple were unsustainable.

Source: CNBC

--Agencies