- Apple could launch smart home security technology
- Your smart doorbell could boast Face ID and use iCloud to store videos
- Don’t expect it until late 2025 or 2026
We’ve recently heard rumors that Apple wants to launch a smart home hub with a display, what has been described as an Apple HomePod with a display, but the company’s smart home visions reportedly don’t stop there. We could also see it launch devices like an Apple video doorbell, smart lock, and security camera; So while the Apple Car concept might be dead (another rumored foray into previously uncharted product territory), the Apple Home could be about to take off.
This comes via Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (behind a paywall) in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, who says that Apple is focusing its efforts on robotics, artificial intelligence and smart home technology, being It is the smart home that is most likely to bear fruit. soon in the form of security devices like video doorbells that can lock the front door or home security cameras.
The doorbell may be particularly interesting as it would supposedly offer a form of Face ID for your home by automatically detecting if it’s you.
While this smart home pivot may seem a little strange considering how the HomePod has been treated. He seems to always be in the background of presentations and advertisements, never getting his own chance to be the center of attention. Gurman notes, however, that Apple’s shift toward the smart home comes from the company’s belief that it has an advantage over the competition: confidence in its privacy.
Many people don’t want Amazon-made cameras in their homes, or cameras from most major tech companies, out of concern about how their private data could be used, even if there’s no evidence it’s being mishandled. But Apple has spent years cultivating the image of being the best there is at privacy (it’s even a major component of its Apple Intelligence marketing, and it wasn’t for other AIs until Apple came on the scene), so Gurman reports that The company believes this insight will help it succeed with home security technology.
He adds that it could also help Apple boost its iCloud subscription numbers, as people would want to store their recordings in the cloud.
Learn from mistakes or repeat them?
If you visit the Apple Store website, you’ll see that Apple already has a respectable line of smart home accessories, complete with smart locks, smart lights, motion detectors, smart doorbells, and more, but none of them are made by Apple.
Instead, it relies on third-party accessories that are of varying quality according to some reviewers (this $330-level smart lock from a few years ago is labeled ineffective since it can be opened with the simplest method known to pickers), but with Luckily, Apple has learned of the best options among its third-party stocks.
As with all leaks, we should take these latest ones with a pinch of salt, and even if Apple’s smart home technology is on the way, it could be some time before we see it in action. Mark Gurman says he’s been told not to expect to see anything until at least the end of 2025.
There’s also a non-zero chance that Apple will abandon home security before it sees the light of day. One of the reasons it didn’t continue with the Apple Car was that executives feared the company would be associated with car accidents. The same fears, but this time over home security flaws, could be enough to deter Apple from expanding in this area in the end.
We’ll have to wait and see what 2025 has in store for us, but with reports that Apple is developing a ring and also developing AR glasses in the background, it may not be long before we see Apple’s next big hardware release.
