Apple’s Next Big Thing Is Reportedly an iPad on a Robot Arm

Apple hasn’t had a perfect track record on smart home gadgets or smart cars. The Cupertino, California tech giant is reportedly now consumed by the idea of home-based robotics. We’ve finally got our first hint from a reliable rumormonger about Apple’s next big project. It’s apparently a big-screen iPad attached to a tabletop robot arm. Think less Samsung Ballie and more Homepod, but with a screen that can twist and rotate—all powered with AI. 

We’ve heard hints about this shift to smart home robotics earlier this year, but a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims Apple has put hundreds of staff onto its iPad plus robot arm concept. Gurman cites anonymous sources with knowledge of Apple’s latest efforts who say the arm would be a smart home “command center” that will be a Homepod, a videoconferencing window, and a security tool all rolled into one. Imagine if you stuck an Amazon Echo Show or a Pixel Tablet with its smart home hub dock on a thin, mechanical arm with built-in actuators to move it around.

Apple first reportedly approved the idea back in 2022. However, the project has ballooned in recent months after the demise of the long-anticipated Apple-brand electric car—as first reported by Bloomberg back in February. This also coincides with Apple’s big move towards AI, dubbed Apple Intelligence. The device will probably use AI to some degree and will likely use the AI-ified Siri to heed users’ directions.

According to Bloomberg’s report, CEO Tim Cook has backed the initiative. He’s sitting alongside head of hardware engineering John Ternus and VP of technology Kevin Lynch. Lynch was also at the head of Apple’s smart car project. VP of hardware engineering in charge of Homepod Matt Costello is also reportedly overseeing the hardware side of things. 

Smart home tech hasn’t been a moneymaker for many big tech companies. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon is burning billions of dollars on its Echo lineup. The company tried a loss-leading strategy to offer cheap devices to put Alexa in millions of homes. Amazon is trying to boost Alexa with AI, including Apple, Google, Samsung, and almost every major tech brand. Amazon wants users to buy a subscription to access this AI Alexa. 

The current version in testing is reportedly still using a modified version of iPadOS, a software suite known for trailing behind MacOS in terms of versatility. Perhaps the software will work better on a moving arm adhered to a tabletop, but Apple would still need to modify it heavily to create something quick enough to use on the fly. 

It’s still early, and Bloomberg claims we’ll see this drop sometime in 2026 or 2027 for somewhere around $1,000. And yet, from the outset, the idea of a robot arm with a screen conjures images of Jetsons-like 50s-era future tech that seems far less useful in today’s age of pocketable smartphones.