Apple’s rumored tabletop robotic device with a FaceTime camera and a display could launch as soon as 2026, priced around $1000.
Apple is rumored to have considered an iPad-like smart display with a camera mounted on a robotic arm that would rotate to follow the person in the room.
In a new report published on Bloomberg on August 15, author Mark Gurman claims that Apple’s leadership has decided to push ahead with the project “in search of new revenue.” The rumored accessory might be released as soon as 2026 with premium pricing at around $1000, but Apple’s plans are not finalized and could change. No other publication has corroborated the Apple tabletop robot rumor.
Rumor: Apple pushes ahead with a tabletop robot
The project definitely looks like it has moved past the exploratory stage because it now has an official lead, Kevin Lynch, who was in charge of Apple Watch development and oversaw Apple’s discontinued car project. The tabletop robot apparently has a team of several hundred people working on it. The device has “a thin robotic arm” to move and tilt a large screen automatically. It reportedly relies on “actuators to tilt the display up and down and make it spin 360 degrees.”
The tabletop robot would use the power of machine learning, artificial intelligence and computer vision to rotate its arm and follow the user. It’s said to run Apple Intelligence and support voice interactions via the built-in Siri assistant. Voice recognition would identify the user by their voice similar to multiuser Siri on HomePod, automatically orienting the display to face him or her.
What would the use cases be? The most obvious is FaceTime videoconferencing from across the room, but Gurman says the device would also monitor the security of your smart home and serve as a “smart home command center.”
This isn’t the only home-focused accessory said to be cooking in Apple’s kitchen. Back in April 2021, Gurman claimed that the Cupertino company was looking into a device that would combine Apple TV and HomePod functionality, have an integrated touchscreen and provide a camera for video calls similar to Amazon’s Echo Show, Meta’s discontinued Portal and Google’s Nest Hub. Oh, and a new HomePod equipped with a touchscreen display could be in the works, too.