New Apple products are always big news, especially new Apple products in new product categories—such as the smart display we’ve been hearing rumors about for several months now. The leaks are becoming more frequent and more detailed, and all the signs are now pointing to a launch sometime in 2025.
A smart display makes sense for Apple, considering it’s already got several of the necessary ingredients: a smart speaker in the form of the HomePod, its Siri smart assistant, a whole bunch of iPads, and its own smart home platform with HomeKit. Put all of that together, and you’ve got yourself a smart display.
Adding this device to its product line would also give Apple the opportunity to take on the Echo Show from Amazon and the Nest Hub from Google. These smart displays have proved useful as an evolution from the smart speaker, bringing with them video and image support, plus lots of helpful on-screen graphics—for music playback, traffic directions, and smart home toggles, for example.
This new piece of hardware hasn’t been announced by Apple, so it’s still not certain that it’s on the way—but the leaks and rumors have now reached a level where it would be a surprise if Apple didn’t release something like this within the next year or so. Here’s everything I’ve heard so far.
What is the Apple smart display?
The Echo Show 10 could hint at what Apple’s smart display will look like.
Credit: Amazon
If you’re familiar with the Echo Show 10 from Amazon—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 building with its smart display. It will bring with it the audio functionality of the HomePod, and Siri support, and add a screen on top.
That screen will most likely let you do everything from watch Apple TV Plus shows, to tap buttons to control your connected smart lights. Back in July, hidden code in Apple’s backend database hinted that this device was on the way—with software built on tvOS and homeOS, and the A18 processor from the iPhone 16.
We know what the tvOS software can do on the Apple TV boxes, and the A18 processor would also enable Apple Intelligence on this gadget too—which right now is Siri with some extra AI and ChatGPT added on top. It’s likely that you’re going to be able to have more natural and more detailed conversations with the smart display than you can currently have with the HomePod.
It’s not clear exactly how the HomePod and a screen are going to be combined: The display may even be something like the Google Pixel Tablet, which you can pick up from its speaker dock and carry around with you. Alternatively, it might be a smaller display console that’s not much bigger than the touch-sensitive console already on top of the HomePod speakers.
More leaks and rumors
Apple may also take inspiration from the Google Pixel Tablet.
Credit: Google
Recently, the Seoul Economic Daily reported that a 6.7-inch OLED display was being prepared for the Apple smart display. It follows a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman—usually a reliable source of Apple leaks—that the device would be a six-inch screen that mounts on the wall rather than sitting on a HomePod, which would make it more like the eight-inch Amazon Echo Hub than the Echo Show.
The device will “control appliances, handle video-conferencing and use AI to navigate apps” according to Gurman, and presumably there will be a smaller speaker built into it, iPad-style, to enable video calls and Siri interactions. There’s the possibility that a larger speaker might be sold as a separate dock, if you want to take the screen off the wall.
In fact, Apple may be testing several versions of this device—there might even be one with a screen on a robotic arm, with an aesthetic similar to the old iMac G4 (that’s from Gurman again). These different versions would come in at different price points of course, and there’s also been talk of a “tabletop robot” in the offing at Apple—so a HomePod with a screen that also follows you around. Users could pick the device they prefer, but the software would essentially be the same, and focused on the smart home.
Another notable Apple analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, says that a “HomePod with display” will be a crucial part of Apple’s smart home strategy going forward: That it will be a “repositioning” of the HomePod line, and will make an appearance in the second half of 2025 (after possibly being teased at WWDC 2025 in June). Kuo backs up the prediction of a six- to seven-inch screen too, but there’s still a lot we don’t know—including potential pricing.
