And so the wait goes on for Apple’s long-rumored HomePod improve. We’ve been listening to for years that the nice-sounding however functionally restricted sensible speaker will quickly be redesigned to get a correct show, but it surely by no means appears to occur. And now the expected launch date has been pushed again as soon as once more.
The revered analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had beforehand claimed {that a} HomePod with a screen would launch sooner or later in 2024. However the identical pundit now believes it gained’t arrive till the third quarter of subsequent yr, after WWDC 2025.
“The mass manufacturing schedule for the display-equipped HomePod has been delayed a number of instances,” Kuo writes on Medium. “Initially forecasted for 2024 (as I predicted in 2023), it was postponed to 1Q25, and extra lately, additional delayed to after WWDC 2025/3Q25.”
The analyst blames software program improvement for the delay in manufacturing, though he doesn’t make clear why the software program is taking longer than anticipated to develop. He does observe that the system will “emphasize sensible house functionalities extra” than present HomePod merchandise, however this was all the time understood to be the plan; maybe the challenges are associated to Apple Intelligence, which Kuo says will probably be supported however won’t have been a part of the plan when the system was anticipated to launch in 2024.
Apple final updated the HomePod in early 2023 with a shock second-generation mannequin that didn’t change a lot aside from a getting new chip and shedding a few microphones. Most notably it isn’t able to operating Apple Intelligence, which we’d count on to be rectified within the subsequent launch.
However at this level, as is commonly the case with tech merchandise which have been delayed a number of instances, we’ve got to start out questioning if it is going to ever launch. I’ve written earlier than about my doubts as as to whether a display can fix the HomePod’s problems, and I very a lot doubt that putting in a show and placing up the value is the best way to carry a distinct segment product to the mainstream. Apple has definitely been engaged on a sensible speaker with a display–there’s far an excessive amount of proof to doubt it—however I feel there’s a good probability it is going to assume higher of the entire thing and transfer on.
