Business 5 min read By Callum Montgomery
Apple Bets on Siri AI to Revive Home Devices With New HomeView Display
Apple has launched its first smart home display, the HomeView, alongside a new Apple TV 4K, HomePod mini 2 and home accessories, placing an upgraded Siri assistant at the centre of a renewed push into the home market where it has lagged behind Amazon and Google.
Apple has unveiled its first smart home display, the HomeView, in a product launch that places an upgraded version of its Siri assistant at the centre of a renewed effort to compete in the connected home market. The device, which features a 7-inch screen and resembles a scaled-up Apple Watch, will cost $299 and go on sale on 13 November, with a wall-mounted version also available.
The launch, presided over by new chief executive John Ternus, also included a new Apple TV 4K with an upgraded chip, a second-generation HomePod mini, and a collection of home accessories developed with LG and Schneider Electric, including a video doorbell, a smart thermostat and a smart lock. The upgraded Siri assistant, which relies on Google's Gemini AI technology, was prominently featured and will be available in beta on the HomeView and the new Apple TV 4K, with the HomePod mini 2 to receive it through a future software update.
Apple has been present in the home market for years but has failed to match the success of Amazon and Google, which benefited from an early start and cheaper hardware. Siri's poor performance has also held the company back. Revenue for Apple's Wearables, Home and Accessories segment fell by 4 per cent during its 2025 fiscal year to about $35.7bn, and in July the company revealed a disappointing revenue forecast for its fiscal fourth quarter.
The upgraded Siri is designed to understand what is on a user's screen and act on it, assist with writing, and search a user's phone for context. According to Anshel Sag, an analyst at market research firm Moor Insights & Strategy, one of the most noticeable differences is that Siri previously handed queries off to ChatGPT or elsewhere because it lacked intelligence, but it now gives the requested answer directly. He described the move as Apple rebooting its entire approach to home, adding that if Siri is significantly better, there is an opportunity to revive products that previously struggled.
Even so, Sag noted that the general public appears largely unaware that Apple has upgraded Siri, and the company needs to change that quickly if it wants wider adoption. The revamp of its home lineup is now crucial not only to expand Siri's reach but also to improve the assistant and lock in Apple customers.
Competition in the sector is intensifying. As interest in artificial intelligence has surged, technology companies such as Meta and OpenAI are racing to build a variety of devices that could form a family of AI products present throughout a user's day, allowing AI to pick up vast amounts of context. Apple will also continue to face competition from Amazon and Google, which have been working to improve their own chatbots.
Yet there is still room to win, according to Mohit Agrawal, research director at market research firm Counterpoint Research. He said most smart speakers and hubs in homes today are low-cost devices that cannot run AI at the edge, making them ripe for replacement, and that Amazon and Google have only just begun refreshing their hardware for Alexa+ and Gemini, leaving the upgrade cycle wide open. Rather than buying its way in, as Amazon did with Ring and Google with Nest, Apple is partnering with LG and Schneider Electric, allowing it to fill out the home quickly while keeping control of the experience through Siri and the Home app.
Ternus replaced Tim Cook as chief executive in September. A product engineering specialist, he has been establishing himself by rolling out new devices intended to cement Apple's hardware supremacy, most notably the company's first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, which he unveiled in September. Counterpoint predicted that month that Apple would sell around six million Duos this year. A report this week by Chinese news outlet Securities Times said Apple had increased supply-chain orders for the Duo by 30 per cent, while orders for the new iPhone 18 Pro were down. Apple has not said how many Duos it expects to sell. Pre-orders for the Duo open this Friday, and the phone will be available in stores on 23 October.
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