According to a report by Bloomberg News based on insider data, Apple intends to resume its long-awaited push into the smart home market on October 13. The new central hub has been codenamed J490.
Furthermore, as part of this announcement, Apple plans to introduce the first update for the HomePod mini since its release in 2020, and will also debut a new TV accessory for the first time since 2022. Apple did not provide immediate comments in response to a request for comment.
John Ternus took over leadership at Apple on September 1. Analysts expect his tenure in this role to lead to an increased focus on the company's strengths—devices and engineering—as well as the integration of artificial intelligence capabilities into existing products. Bloomberg previously reported that Ternus is considering a major corporate reorganization aimed at increasing engineering focus and more frequent product releases.
Apple aims to expand its presence in the smart home segment while maintaining reliance on its core business, which is driven by the company's flagship product, the iPhone, which is the key driver of the entire ecosystem.
Currently, Apple offers HomePod and HomePod mini in its smart home lineup, while the Apple TV 4K accessory falls under the home entertainment category. For a long time, the company's commitment to this category appeared hesitant. Apple's smart home framework, HomeKit, has existed since 2014, and devices such as Apple TV and HomePod speakers can already function as home hubs, and Apple supports the Matter compatibility standard. However, according to TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod, Apple's ambitions seemed cautious compared to Amazon and Google, whose AI displays were products from the outset.
The upcoming hub, which resembles Amazon's Echo Show and Google's Nest Hub, will be a small, roughly square display that can either be mounted on a wall or placed on a table, according to the Bloomberg report.
The Missing Link
This hub will be able to recognize individual household members and provide personalized content and responses based on their accounts and data. New versions of HomePod mini and Apple TV will retain their current design but will receive faster processors to support more powerful AI Siri models. In June, Apple introduced a long-awaited upgrade to Siri as part of broader efforts to strengthen its AI capabilities.
Siri was that missing element. Delays in the hub's release occurred because the old assistant lacked sufficient functionality to serve as the primary interface. The rebuilt assistant, Siri AI, partially runs directly on the device, and for more complex tasks, it uses Apple's Private Cloud Compute servers. The beta version began rolling out with iOS 27 on September 14, and South Africa is included in the initial rollout list.
McLeod argued that most of the information required by a smart home is narrow, repetitive, and highly personal: who is home, in which rooms, their daily routines, cameras, appliances, and energy consumption. This is data that people are least willing to share in a public cloud, aligning with Apple's strengths in efficient on-device silicon and privacy. In August, Apple advertised its new Mac mini as a machine for 'always-on agent computing,' meaning continuously running AI agents.
Apple controls the chips, operating systems, phones, watches, TVs, speakers, and computers upon which such a home relies, and hundreds of millions of customers already own several such devices. As McLeod wrote, 'the smart home for 15 years was a hobby for people willing to tinker with hubs, automation, incompatible standards, and poorly designed apps. Artificial intelligence finally offers a way to hide this complexity behind plain language. Instead of programming the house, you talk to it.'