Apple's HomePod With a Screen Delayed Until Next Year at the Earliest

Apple's project to design its first HomePod with a screen has been pushed back until next year at the earliest, as part of a series of cost-cutting measures and belt-tightening efforts to make its operations more efficient.

HomePod With Screen
In his latest Power On newsletter, well-connected Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman suggested that delaying the device will allow Apple to allocate its research and development budget to more pressing projects, like mixed reality headsets.

The move is part of a strategy to contain costs that should enable the company to maintain an appearance of stability in an unstable economy and avoid the swingeing cutbacks and layoffs that have befallen other tech companies including Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.

Other moves to avoid layoffs are said to include delaying bonuses for corporate teams, pausing hiring on some teams, reining in budgets, and leaving roles open rather than filling them when people leave their positions.

The revised timing for the rumored HomePod product tallies with Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo's recent prediction that a redesigned HomePod with a 7-inch display will arrive in the first half of 2024.

In 2021, Gurman was first to suggest that Apple is working on new HomePods with displays and cameras. In the long term, Apple is believed to be rethinking its smart home strategy and is reportedly working on a combined Apple TV and HomePod device, as well as a HomePod with a screen mounted on a robotic arm.

Related Roundups: HomePod, HomePod mini

Top Rated Comments

giggles Avatar
10 weeks ago
We need a term for these so-called “delays” of stuff that was never announced in the first place and are actually delays only if compared to a fantasy timeline that was previously (sometimes only recently) rumored by the Rumors-Leaks Complex.

I propose “Schrödinger's delays”.
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WiiDSmoker Avatar
10 weeks ago
All this supposed cost cutting yet customers won’t see any of it.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pauloregan Avatar
10 weeks ago
Here's a scoop. Apple never intended to make a HomePod with a ridiculous screen in it as Apple would never be that stupid.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacDevil7334 Avatar
10 weeks ago
I’m just not sure why I would want a HomePod with a screen. So I could see as well as hear Siri’s sub-par responses? FaceTime sure but who wants a FaceTime camera that stays plugged into a wall outlet and you can’t move?
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
karranz Avatar
10 weeks ago
Apple should bring back Jony Ive and Scott Forstall ASAP.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ericwn Avatar
10 weeks ago
Another home appliance with a success projection somewhere as low as the HomePod already was. Come on Apple, deliver bold products and not mishmash nonsense that fills niches.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)