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First Plans for Apple's Tabletop Robot Spotted in Supply Chain

dominiongamma said:
Apple is losing its focus on what customers want
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You can argue they’re merely creating more specialized niche products very few manufacturers but them with their money and supplier chain advantages can do catering to high-end segments of existing customers of theirs.

This strategy is no different than what lead many established high-end tech today to flourish: 4K, Dolby Vision, SSDs, Ray-tracing.

It diversifies their high-margin-oriented product hardware portfolio, and such products often pave the way to have parts scaled up or made cheaper over time to be viable for their actual mainstream products.

Apple by no concidence makes such bets in markets that often didn’t have an option before or didn’t have a good option at the tier they’re targeted towards accommodating their established closed hardware ecosystem customers.

Typically that’s at the high-end and prosumer tiers (i.e. Macbook and Macbook Pro as ultrabooks, Pro Display XDR, Mac Pro, Apple Watch, Apple Watch Ultra, and Vision Pro)
 
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Kylo83 said:
Let’s all be honest it’s just gonna be an iPad Pro on a stand nothing special but more expensive even tho it’s less portable
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It’s not a foreign concept. Tablet manufacturers have special docks to make their tablets a smart home device.

It’s disingenuous to frame any smart home device with a screen and powerful APU as a tablet that’s less portable.
 
dominiongamma said:
Apple is losing its focus on what customers want
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…Depends on what customers they’re focusing on accommodating with the device.

Apple, following commonplace design principles, does not make products for most people.

Apple has tons of resources to research and forecast the viability of their products for particular segments they’re targeting and the manufacturing/strategic goals the product has.

If they made their goals for the product within the amount they’re willing to make, that’s all that matters to the most powerful stakeholders responsible for the project even being greenlighted.

I personally love Apple is taking risks again in very well thought markets I’ve wanted better competition and tier of options to consider they’re contributing to ultimately with this.

I’ve long wanted a higher end ceiling of display smart home hardware this provides.
 
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This makes sense because of the failure of Siri and HomePod.
But the trust in Apple accessory products is gone and wont come back soon.
 
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sw1tcher said:
In the simplest of terms, it's a device desgined to get people to subscribe to Apple services. That's the only segment within Apple that's actually growing by a meaningful amount each year and with the highest of margins.
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Yup. They know their iPhone gravy train can’t last forever and without iUsers no one will need their “services” (like the iCloud forced on us by intentionally crippled syncing between iOS devices and Mac). The EU rulings and ongoing US DOJ issues make the situation worse.
 
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If this is the first step to one of these. Then sure, release the first gen iBot. I don’t think I’d want a tabletop robot with an attached iPad that moves its 'head' around to follow me that doesn’t do anything besides play music. The moment it can do my dishes, tidy up the house, do my laundry and the cat litter, I'm all in for one.
 
...and ONE more thing!

YOU WILL NEVER TURN ON THE LIGHTS IN MORE AMAZING WAY!!!
WE INTRODUCE... THE iSCREEN WITH AMAZING APPLE INTELIGENCE THAT WILL SEE YOUR EVERY MOVE, HEAR EVERY WORD AND KNOW EVERYTHING YOU THINK ABOUT. ONE IS WATCHING YOU RIGHT NOW AND IT KNOWS THAT YOU GONNA BUY IT FOR JUST 1299$* FOR BASIC 4GB MODEL OR 2999$** IF YOU WANT iSCREEN ULTRA WITH EVEN MORE AMAZING FEATURES LIKE VOLUME CONTROL AND MORE ACTION BUTTONS!

* Charger sold separately
** Available summer 2028 in Black Lives Matte and Privileged White colors.
 
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robots are cool
hope aapl design will make it look cool
maybe the base foot print will be the current mac mini
since the new mac mini is going to smaller foot print
or
robot will have legs to move around
 
trip1ex said:
Thanks. But if that's it ...I still don't see the point of it. Seems like a very niche use case. And more of a novelty.
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Not at all — it's sort of the perfect appliance. It's a purpose-built consumption and information device for localized areas. It's perfect for literally everything that isn't work/productivity. It's a thread hub device, it's a Facetime device, it plays videos while in the kitchen and moves with you so don't miss anything, or you are always in frame for a call. It's a very wide use case — we all use our little phone screens that are always in the way taking up counter space, but can never see properly because it still smaller than an ideal screen. The iPad may always be used by one of the kids, and if you do get a hold of it, it still needs to be repositioned to view it properly. We have cobbled solutions together from existing devices in our own way — but depending on the specifics (screen size, range of articulation, sound, feature set) this could be a solution we didn't even know we needed.

Just food for thought
 
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hagjohn said:
Both of those products are around $100, not $1,000.
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Apple would never release a tiny, low-quality screen with a tinny speaker. Even if they matched the spec and size of those devices, you would still be looking at something around the $200-250 mark but with a better fit and finish. THIS is meant to be more than that. I guarantee a quality screen of at least 11", better sound with spacial audio, and the robotics to adjust the screen position using centre stage but as robotic articulation, not a camera trick.

Will that be for everyone, no... nothing is... but I think this would have a much wider market then people seem to understand.
 
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Apple does need a dedicated hub for music and home automation. Make the hub AI intelligent. Not sure why that hub would require a screen or sound. Will see when and if the hub arrives.
 
Mrkevinfinnerty said:
I don't think at $1000 this is a device that the average consumer wants.

If someone wants to make a Facetime call or control their smart home why wouldn't they just use their phone or their ipad?

There might be a market if it was cheaper but this has that Vision Pro thing. Too little utility, too large a price tag.
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Well, considering that Apple sells various HomeKit hubs at various price points (Apple TV, HomePod, HomePod Mini, formerly iPads), it makes sense to make this an upmarket product for the serious home automation crowd.
 
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Websnapx2 said:
Not at all — it's sort of the perfect appliance. It's a purpose-built consumption and information device for localized areas. It's perfect for literally everything that isn't work/productivity. It's a thread hub device, it's a Facetime device, it plays videos while in the kitchen and moves with you so don't miss anything, or you are always in frame for a call. It's a very wide use case — we all use our little phone screens that are always in the way taking up counter space, but can never see properly because it still smaller than an ideal screen. The iPad may always be used by one of the kids, and if you do get a hold of it, it still needs to be repositioned to view it properly. We have cobbled solutions together from existing devices in our own way — but depending on the specifics (screen size, range of articulation, sound, feature set) this could be a solution we didn't even know we needed.

Just food for thought
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yeah i read what you wrote the first time. ;)

If you're moving around in the kitchen, you're going to miss the video playing no matter whether the screen is turning to face you or not. That is unless you're walking sideways and backwards and never looking at where you're going or what you're doing. And who does that? No one.

Nevermind an iPad on a stand has a viewing angle of 180 degrees practically. Plenty for moving around in a kitchen and still being able to see the screen. REmember too that kitchens are setup so you don't have to move very far between fridge, oven and sink. Or they are supposed to be to maximize efficiency.

Always in a frame for a call? They have tech in ipads now to mitigate that called CenterStage.

small iphone screens? Kid has iPad? Buy another iPad. The 9th gen is $200 at big box retailers now as I type. IT's more than powerful enough for watching videos in the kitchen.

So ...I completely don't see the use case other than some really specialized niche or some pricey novelty.
 
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trip1ex said:
yeah i read what you wrote the first time. ;)

If you're moving around in the kitchen, you're going to miss video playing no matter if the screen is turning to face you. Unless you're walking sideways and backwards and never looking at what you're doing. And who does that? No one.

Nevermind an iPad on a stand has a viewing angle of 180 degrees practically. Plenty for moving around in a kitchen and still being able to see the screen.

Always in a frame for a call? They have tech in ipads now to mitigate that called CenterStage.

small iphone screens? There's the iPad as you know.

Kid has iPad? Buy another iPad. The 9th gen is $200 at big box retailers now as I type. IT's more than powerful enough for watching videos in the kitchen.

So ...I completely don't see the use case other than some really specialized niche.
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Don't you think Apple knows all this and has other plans for it that you have not imagined? Just maybe?
 
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