Apple is set to bolster its smart-home lineup with fresh updates to the Apple TV and HomePod mini, alongside a new touchscreen home hub, aiming for a September unveiling amid intensified AI integration efforts.
Apple is preparing a fresh push into the smart-home market, with a new Apple TV, a new HomePod mini and a touchscreen-equipped home hub all now expected to appear in the months ahead, according to reporting cited by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The timing points to a September unveiling for at least some of the products, although the display-based hub may not reach shops until later in the autumn or early next year.
The most likely near-term refreshes are the Apple TV and HomePod mini, both of which are now several years old. The current Apple TV 4K dates to 2022 and still uses the A15 chip from the iPhone 13 range, while the HomePod mini has not been meaningfully updated since 2020 and is based on the S5 chip from Apple Watch Series 5. MacRumors reported that both devices are expected to get faster processors to support Siri AI, with the Apple TV possibly moving to the A17 Pro and the HomePod mini likely adopting an S9-class chip or newer.
That hardware shift matters because Apple’s smart-home line has lagged behind the rest of its product range on artificial intelligence. Bloomberg has indicated that Apple’s broader Siri AI effort appears to have pushed these updates back, and the company’s recent software changes have done little to change the picture. The latest tvOS beta has added some audio improvements, including support for lossless Apple Music playback and more stable AirPlay speaker performance, but not the kind of major local AI features that could transform Apple’s living-room devices.
The more important product, however, may be the new home hub. Reports from MacWorld and other outlets suggest Apple is building a dedicated smart-home controller with a touchscreen, custom interface and tighter integration with Siri. That would mark a deeper step into home automation than Apple’s current speakers and set-top box, and it comes as rival companies push ahead with their own AI-focused hubs. Apple’s challenge is not only to refresh ageing hardware, but to make its next-generation home products useful enough to justify premium pricing in a market where the company has already raised prices on existing models.
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