Rumors that Apple is hard at work on a home table-top robot persist, with the latest report estimating the potential price of this animated bot at somewhere around $1,000.
According to a new report in Bloomberg, Apple has hundreds of people working on the project, with most of them led by former Apple Watch mastermind (and the guy behind the ill-fated car project), Kevin Lynch. Apple has yet to comment, so much of what we think we know about the robot project is pure speculation.
It might look like the classic iMac G3 of 2001, with a large, thin screen hanging off an articulated armature. The difference would be that this thin arm would be animated, and the robot would, likely thanks to Siri and maybe Apple Intelligence, respond to commands and queries.
It’s years, if not an eternity, from arrival, but Bloomberg claims that at least there’s a concerted effort to keep the price in the $1,000 range.
It’s that bit that sticks out for me.
A high bar to success
Now, I’m no great believer in this project (code-named, according to Bloomberg, Project J595). Apple appears, if the rumors are true, to be almost toying (in a very expensive way) with the idea in much the way it did with Project Titan, the now-dead Apple Car Project. It’s bold, exciting, and could be an industry game changer, but it’s also like one of Google’s moonshot projects. You know, the ones that Google launches and regularly axes.
Robotics is tough even for companies entirley committed to them. There may be a race to make the first viable home humanoid robot but I hesitate to say any one company is ahead of the other or even anywhere close to delivering one to my house.
A tabletop robot might be far less ambitious, but the effort may be no less fraught. I still remember Jibo, an adorable home tabletop robot with a swiveling head and screen face that could respond to queries and carry on a bit of conversation. Even though Jibo arrived years before the generative AI boon, the developers called it a social robot. Ultimately, it didn’t matter what they called it; consumers were not interested.
Considering the advancements in hardware, silicon, and, especially AI, Apple’s rumored efforts might fare better. Still, much depends on Apple’s goal. Is it to bring robotics into the home, or is it to finally get Apple properly into the smart home space?
Nothing Apple has done so far has put it on equal footing with Google and Amazon regarding smart home integration. Could an over-large and personable tabletop robot bring it all together? It might be the central idea missing from Apple’s smart home strategy.
Maybe, and that brings some back to the price.
The price must be right
Apple has already learned a hard lesson with Vision Pro, a spectacular piece of wearable mixed-reality technology that very few own because they simply can’t afford it or can’t justify paying almost $3,500 for something they wear on their heads.
If Apple wants to succeed in its home robot efforts, the Apple Bot can’t cost $3,500, and it can’t cost $2,000. Even $1,000 might be a stretch. Now, a $499 Apple Home robot, that would be something.
It’ll likely be years before we know if Apple’s development efforts have paid off and whether the fruit of their efforts is a gold-encrusted peach or a shiny red apple that anyone can buy and consume.
If it cannot be the latter, I suggest Apple pull the plug on its rumored robot project now and shelve it right next to the fabled Apple Car.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
