Apple is reportedly developing a premium HomeView built around a motorized arm that spins 360 degrees and turns the display toward whoever's speaking, per Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. A larger 9-inch screen, a 2027-2028 target, and an identity crisis about whether it's a "Max," an "Ultra," or something with its own name.
We’ve only just got the first HomeView, but the Cupertino crew is thinking about the long-game here, and it expands into a companion era I’m not sure we’re ready for — with a fascinating backstory.
What’s actually rumored
Per Gurman, the arm-equipped device pairs the motorized base with a bigger 9-inch display — up from the 7-inch panel on the standard HomeView just announced. But what’s key to note is that this is not HomeView 2.
It’s a more premium experience, and a companion that is actually able to rotate on its base and look at you as you walk around a room. Less of a passive device on your kitchen countertop and one that can actively engage with you — with a rumored $1,000 price tag penciled in for a 2027 launch.
Apple already showed you this future
In February 2025, Apple Machine Learning Research published a video of a robot lamp research demo — a little articulated Pixar-looking lamp that watched a person move around a room, and responded with something uncomfortably close to personality. Head tilts. Leaning in. The unmistakable energy of Pixar’s mascot coming to life with a machine learning degree.
Nobody treated it as a serious thing at the time. But here we are in October 2026, watching how things can come full circle. The more I watch it, the more I realize this wasn’t just a lamp demo. It was Apple workshopping the idea of making your furniture behave like it notices you.
And soon, we may see what that looks like in a real product. But that’s not the only place where Apple may have already been unintentionally working on the HomeView Max.
The car is dead. Long live the car’s robot arm
Here’s the story underneath the story: the $10 billion electric car is the most expensive graveyard in Apple history. When it was gutted, we all thought that everything was scattered into the wind.
Gurman’s reporting suggests something more deliberate — the robotics lived on, moving the arm from the driveway to the living room. And all that gesture recognition, smooth motion and spatial awareness of that car arm is reportedly being repackaged as this screen that turns its head when you walk in mid-Siri.
As a tech nerd, this is an absurdly cool use of some serious engineering.
The reality check: this is a pet, and pets are expensive
So, it’s time to put the tin hat on, together.
First, the swivel is the whole thing — and the entire privacy conversation. Apple’s pitch has always been privacy-centered, and for good reason when you see what other companies are doing.
And while that may well be the case with this arm version of HomeView, I think there’s a creep factor to a screen following you around the room that will cause some spirited discussions around the Thanksgiving table.
Second, that rumored price is going to turn some heads. Compared to other smart home hubs, the current HomeView is already pretty pricey and kind of limited in functionality. Now we have a premium robot sibling option set for launch next year? That’s a big test of household budgets.
Third, Siri has to be good. A robot arm that turns toward you only matters if there’s something worth saying to it once it’s looking. The HomeView ad does show how it can fit into a chaotic family household, but if my iPhone’s Siri response time is anything to go by, those pauses between people asking questions and getting answers would actually leave some awkward silences.
When it’s just a screen on your countertop, that can be forgiven. But when you make it a companion, it has to be near-instantaneous. The arm, ironically, is probably the least important component of this device when it comes to actually using it.
Who should care?
Gurman’s report uses the word “companion,” and I couldn’t agree more. For the past decade, smart home devices have been appliances — helpful, static and furniture-adjacent.
This robot arm is the moment the real hub is elevated above being just a screen with a speaker, but a feeling that something in your house knows you walked in.
Are people going to be comfortable with this? That’s something we’ll find out. Apple’s $299 HomeView is a slightly high, but rational price for a smart display, and it’ll get the software updates the robot needs anyway.
This rumored arm version is for a different person entirely: the smart-home early adopter with a spouse who’s stopped asking where the money went, and the Apple watcher reading the tea leaves.
So to figure this out, I turn to you, dear reader!
More from Tom's Guide
- Should you buy the Apple HomeView? 5 reasons to pick one up (and 2 reasons why you might want to hold off)
- I’ve been living with Nvidia’s RTX Spark for a week — it’s not a MacBook Pro killer but something much weirder and wildly powerful
- Elon Musk just unveiled a flying car — watch the Tesla Roadster's incredible launch