With more than half of US smartphone owners using iPhones, Apple has been a mobile success story for the past few years But it's a different story in the smart home arena, where the HomePod series of smart speakers has struggled to compete with Amazon's Alexa-powered Echo devices, not to mention their performance

However, according to Bloomberg's Mark Garman, Apple has plans to compete in earnest in this area “over the next two years,” using “screens and software throughout the house in ways that create an end-to-end experience”

In his latest “Power On” newsletter, Garman highlights two devices in particular: the first is a smart display, comparable to Amazon's Echo Show or Google's Nest Hub Garman describes it as an “affordable iPad-like screen,” priced in a way that consumers will feel compelled to place it around the house, where it will be used for Apple TV Plus streaming, FaceTime calls, web surfing, and access to planning apps like Calendar and Notes It will be used to access

It is worth remembering that this is not the first time such a device has been raised, but it appears to be different from the rumor raised by Gurman in 2022 that an old iPad would be converted into a smart screen via a special dock

The article does not mention what this “affordable” price is, but Gurman does give an indication as to what Apple might be set up to buy from the luxury end of the market: a “robotic tabletop device” that would “probably cost around $1,000 “ and claims that it could be sold for “about $1,000

Again, the screen would be prominent, but here it would be “positioned on the limbs of a rotating robot” Unlike the everyday productivity and entertainment offered by smart screens, this tabletop device would “focus on home security monitoring, advanced video conferencing, and high-quality media playback”

Artificial intelligence seems to be at the heart of this device; Gurman writes that it will use AI to understand who is looking at the screen, what they are doing, who is talking, and what is going on around them While Apple claims that the iPhone 16 is the first device built from scratch for Apple Intelligence, Gurman believes that this robotic device has a much more compelling claim to that special honor as a result

These devices, along with the HomePod and Apple TV, will be aimed at the home, but there is more to Apple's strategy than the products themselves; AI is part of it, not only with the aforementioned spatial detection capabilities, but also with Apple Intelligence provide “home automation on steroids and precise control over applications, devices, and media”

Software will also play an important role in the coming battle To this end, Apple is reportedly “building a new home ecosystem team” with engineers who lost direction after the Apple Car project ended This software plan includes plans for homeOS, which will apparently be built on the tvOS software that powers Apple TV (itself iOS-based)

Beyond that, Garman believes that Apple's assistance in developing the Matter smart home standard will help break into a market that is incompatible with the closed ecosystem that the company has historically favored

While there is no doubt that Apple is behind Amazon when it comes to smart home market share, Garman believes that innovation is stalling across the industry and that competition is not over yet 'Right now, no one company has truly mastered the smart home market,' he said 'But someday someone will If the right pieces fit together, it could be Apple itself