Apple’s plans for a smart display suffer a Siri-related setback

Late last week, Apple delayed its big Siri AI upgrade, and it seems that will take the company’s rumored smart display with it. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter, Apple has postponed the device because it at least partially “relies on the delayed Siri capabilities.”

It’s been rumored for months now that Apple was planning to release a device early this year that would serve as a smart home hub with a display, similar to devices that its main smart home competitors, Amazon and Google, have both offered for years. The device is expected to be the first Apple smart home hub with support for Apple Intelligence. It’s also rumored to run on tvOS and support native Apple apps like Calendar, Notes, and, according to recent rumors, compatibility with Apple’s Messages app.

Apple said last week that its upgraded smart assistant is taking “longer than we thought,” and will be released in the “coming year,” hinting that it may not be an iOS 18 feature as originally promised. The version of Apple Intelligence that we have now doesn’t really offer any smart home features so Apple releasing a smart display that’s wrapped up in the Siri AI upgrade wouldn’t make much sense right now.

Apple’s competitors, at first glance, seem to be forging ahead. Amazon, which has had its own struggles integrating AI into Alexa, has announced it’s finally doing just that with Alexa Plus, starting with its own robust Echo Show smart display lineup that most recently included the addition of the Echo Show 21. Google began its own similar rollout of Gemini in December, though only for some Nest speakers. But in both cases, they’re limited rollouts and not truly in the public sphere quite yet.