Apple’s next big thing may be even riskier than the iPhone Duo

Дата публикации: 05-10-2026 10:30:00

Macworld

This time next week, the Apple world could look very different. We may have received (and doubtless be obsessing over the artwork and tagline of) invitations to an event on October 13, when reputable sources say the company will unveil its next big thing. Or, based on other clues, namely the arrival in Apple retail stores of mysterious boxes to be opened on October 8, the information may have already emerged.
Whether it appears this Thursday or next Tuesday, and whether it’s announced via a big press event or a humble press release, Apple’s next big thing will almost certainly be its first bona fide smart-home product: a hub, made up of a vaguely HomePod-like speaker topped by a vaguely iPad-like screen. We in the media have taken to calling it the HomePad, but if the recent launches of the MacBook Neo and iPhone Duo are anything to go by, Apple will probably call it something short and cute and random, ending with an O. The HomePod Echo, perhaps. Or perhaps not.
The real issue with the HomePad is not its name, but its niche. Potential customers will ask every marketing manager’s most feared question: What is it for? If Apple hasn’t come up with an answer in the multiple years the product has been in development, it’s unlikely something will spring to mind in the next eight days. But one way or another an answer will be needed.
As I hinted with my silly Echo joke, this isn’t an unprecedented concept or a new market. Amazon’s closest rival is probably the Echo Show 8 (the Show 5 is closer in screen size, but has a different design), while Google has the Nest Hub, and both sit in the space Apple will be looking to dominate. The presence of these incumbents might seem like a good omen for the company, which loves to wait until a market is established before taking a swing with the definitive product. But as with the foldable iPhone Duo, there are two problems: First, while tech fans in general are intimately familiar with the concept, Apple’s own fans are not. And second, Apple’s version is likely to be more expensive.
The original HomePod may be an illustrative comparison here. Apple was expected to go after the smart speaker market, but ended up leaning far more on the second word than the first. The HomePod is sort of smart, but it’s really just a nice, decent-quality speaker you can command (some of the time…) using your voice. And so Apple didn’t end up displacing products like the Echo and the Nest because the HomePod couldn’t do what they do and didn’t really try, while overachieving in other areas and costing more. And Apple customers, unless they were bold enough to become platform-agnostic, remained outside that bubble.
Siri is a lot smarter now than it was then (not that you’d know it from the performance of legacy HomePod models, unfortunately), so the chances are that Apple will try to do the smart-home concept properly this time. The HomePad will run Siri AI, and thus be able to field questions, surface information from your messages and email inbox, and use natural language. It will have excellent capabilities. But again, the question is what we will use these capabilities for. Where will it sit? What functions will it perform? Speaking personally, I’m not sure how it would fit in my life. So the product’s introduction will need to do a great deal of imaginative heavy lifting.
Let’s say the HomePad sits in the kitchen. Useful for recipes, perhaps, although it’s important to remember that it will only have a 6-inch screen and thus won’t match an iPad for legibility. Or it might sit in the living room and act as the hub for smart-home controls. But what proportion of Apple fans actually use HomeKit smart lights, smart door locks, and a smart thermostat so much that they need a dedicated device? A relatively small one, I’d guess, and those that do will be accustomed to controlling them via automations or manual control on an iPhone. Or even voice controls via a HomePod.
At least with the iPhone Duo, Apple had some user experience to lean on. It is, after all, still a phone, albeit one that’s a little smaller than we’re used to, with the ability to offer a bigger screen than we’re used to. But customers get what it’s offering. It’s a phone, only conceptually better. (And pragmatically, in some ways, rather worse.) You don’t need to make such an imaginative leap of faith.
But the HomePad doesn’t really have a precedent in Apple’s walled garden. It’s a HomePod with a screen. But having a screen (and offering voice control which actually works) massively expands its capabilities in one area, while cutting the speaker down to a tiny hemisphere, as is predicted, slashes them in another. What we end up with isn’t remotely like a HomePod in form or function. It’s something new. And new is scary.
So Apple’s crack marketing team has another challenge on their hands. If you thought the iPhone Duo was an exciting, radical, risky product, wait for the HomePad.
Or whatever they end up calling it. Something short and cute and random. Ending with an O.

Foundry
Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.
Trending: Top stories
Apple’s home hub isn’t what you think it is.
Siri may know a lot more, admits Mahmoud Itani, but it’s still not smart.
Apple under Ternus: More products, more often, with a ‘leaner’ staff.
The iPhone Duo’s toughest competition isn’t another Android foldable.
Eugen Wegmann discusses Halo and the missed opportunity for the Mac.
Get ready: Apple sets iPhone Duo pre-pre-ordering date.
Podcast of the week
Apple recently updated the Mac mini and the Mac Studio, so on the latest episode of the Macworld Podcast, we talk about the new chips in those Macs, the speed improvements, and what you get for the money.
You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.
Reviews corner
Ugreen MagFlow Pro Power Bank: Exceptional 10K battery performance.
Baseus PicoGo Air 5K: The thinnest, lightest iPhone power bank we’ve tested.
Lamtto RC37 CarPlay Auto Display: For old cars.
The rumor mill
More evidence emerges of an imminent Apple device launch. Could it be the new smart-home hub?
Talking of which, the hub will reportedly be available in Rose Pink, Silver, Space Gray, and Starlight.
Support document seems to confirm new Apple TV 4K is coming.
Apple’s September was huge. October could be even bigger.
Software updates, bugs, and problems
iPhone 18 Pro speakers ‘crackling and popping,’ some owners complain.
New macOS malware masquerades as Zoom installer.
AT&T floats a fix for iPhone cellular issues but it doesn’t appear to work.
Apple is selling a $19 fix for iPhone Duo creasing.
And with that, we’re done for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters, including our new email from The Macalope–an irreverent, humorous take on the latest news and rumors from a half-man, half-mythical Mac beast. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, or X for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.

Основное содержимое страницы с новостью.

This time next week, the Apple world could look very different. We may have received (and doubtless be obsessing over the artwork and tagline of) invitations to an event on October 13, when reputable sources say the company will unveil its next big thing. Or, based on other clues, namely the arrival in Apple retail stores of mysterious boxes to be opened on October 8, the information may have already emerged.

Whether it appears this Thursday or next Tuesday, and whether it’s announced via a big press event or a humble press release, Apple’s next big thing will almost certainly be its first bona fide smart-home product: a hub, made up of a vaguely HomePod-like speaker topped by a vaguely iPad-like screen. We in the media have taken to calling it the HomePad, but if the recent launches of the MacBook Neo and iPhone Duo are anything to go by, Apple will probably call it something short and cute and random, ending with an O. The HomePod Echo, perhaps. Or perhaps not.

The real issue with the HomePad is not its name, but its niche. Potential customers will ask every marketing manager’s most feared question: What is it for? If Apple hasn’t come up with an answer in the multiple years the product has been in development, it’s unlikely something will spring to mind in the next eight days. But one way or another an answer will be needed.

As I hinted with my silly Echo joke, this isn’t an unprecedented concept or a new market. Amazon’s closest rival is probably the Echo Show 8 (the Show 5 is closer in screen size, but has a different design), while Google has the Nest Hub, and both sit in the space Apple will be looking to dominate. The presence of these incumbents might seem like a good omen for the company, which loves to wait until a market is established before taking a swing with the definitive product. But as with the foldable iPhone Duo, there are two problems: First, while tech fans in general are intimately familiar with the concept, Apple’s own fans are not. And second, Apple’s version is likely to be more expensive.

The original HomePod may be an illustrative comparison here. Apple was expected to go after the smart speaker market, but ended up leaning far more on the second word than the first. The HomePod is sort of smart, but it’s really just a nice, decent-quality speaker you can command (some of the time…) using your voice. And so Apple didn’t end up displacing products like the Echo and the Nest because the HomePod couldn’t do what they do and didn’t really try, while overachieving in other areas and costing more. And Apple customers, unless they were bold enough to become platform-agnostic, remained outside that bubble.

Siri is a lot smarter now than it was then (not that you’d know it from the performance of legacy HomePod models, unfortunately), so the chances are that Apple will try to do the smart-home concept properly this time. The HomePad will run Siri AI, and thus be able to field questions, surface information from your messages and email inbox, and use natural language. It will have excellent capabilities. But again, the question is what we will use these capabilities for. Where will it sit? What functions will it perform? Speaking personally, I’m not sure how it would fit in my life. So the product’s introduction will need to do a great deal of imaginative heavy lifting.

Let’s say the HomePad sits in the kitchen. Useful for recipes, perhaps, although it’s important to remember that it will only have a 6-inch screen and thus won’t match an iPad for legibility. Or it might sit in the living room and act as the hub for smart-home controls. But what proportion of Apple fans actually use HomeKit smart lights, smart door locks, and a smart thermostat so much that they need a dedicated device? A relatively small one, I’d guess, and those that do will be accustomed to controlling them via automations or manual control on an iPhone. Or even voice controls via a HomePod.

At least with the iPhone Duo, Apple had some user experience to lean on. It is, after all, still a phone, albeit one that’s a little smaller than we’re used to, with the ability to offer a bigger screen than we’re used to. But customers get what it’s offering. It’s a phone, only conceptually better. (And pragmatically, in some ways, rather worse.) You don’t need to make such an imaginative leap of faith.

But the HomePad doesn’t really have a precedent in Apple’s walled garden. It’s a HomePod with a screen. But having a screen (and offering voice control which actually works) massively expands its capabilities in one area, while cutting the speaker down to a tiny hemisphere, as is predicted, slashes them in another. What we end up with isn’t remotely like a HomePod in form or function. It’s something new. And new is scary.

So Apple’s crack marketing team has another challenge on their hands. If you thought the iPhone Duo was an exciting, radical, risky product, wait for the HomePad.

Or whatever they end up calling it. Something short and cute and random. Ending with an O.

Foundry

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.

Eugen Wegmann discusses Halo and the missed opportunity for the Mac.

Get ready: Apple sets iPhone Duo pre-pre-ordering date.

Podcast of the week

Apple recently updated the Mac mini and the Mac Studio, so on the latest episode of the Macworld Podcast, we talk about the new chips in those Macs, the speed improvements, and what you get for the money.

You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.

And with that, we’re done for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters, including our new email from The Macalope–an irreverent, humorous take on the latest news and rumors from a half-man, half-mythical Mac beast. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, or X for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.

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Apple’s next big thing may be even riskier than the iPhone Duo

Дата публикации: 05-10-2026 10:30:00

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