Apple on Tuesday announced HomeView, a new home hub with a 7-inch screen designed to be mounted on a wall or placed on a table. The device starts at $299 and ships on Nov. 13. It recognises the person using it by face and can display information for up to six users, drawing on Messages, Photos, Calendar and Reminders through Apple Intelligence.
The launch is the second under chief executive John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook in September. Last month Apple announced new iPhone models, including a foldable device called the Duo that retails for nearly $2,000. The home products were positioned as a showcase for the Siri AI features Apple released last month: users can converse with Siri on HomeView and continue the conversation on an iPhone or iPad. The device has a built-in speaker and can make FaceTime calls or act as a digital photo frame, and runs on an Apple A18 chip.
"It recognizes your face to shift from a household screen to your own experience, fills the room with incredible sound, keeps you connected to the people who matter most with FaceTime, and makes it easy to control your smart home," Apple's chief marketer Greg Joswiak said in a statement.
Apple also announced a new Apple TV 4K at $299, with a redesigned remote that can play a sound when lost, and a HomePod Mini in new colours at $149, up from its previous $129 price. The company said the new products can serve as a smart home hub, coordinating notifications and actions and working with locks, doorbells and cameras from LG Electronics and Schneider Electric.
The accessories sit in Apple's Wearables, Home and Accessories category, which reported $7.88 billion in sales in the quarter ended June, about 7 per cent of total revenue. The new products are less critical to Apple than the iPhone, and investors remain focused on iPhone sales, but Tuesday's announcement shows home hardware is a higher priority under Ternus. The integration also helps lock customers more tightly into Apple's ecosystem.