Coming in 2027: Apple’s $1,000 home robot for FaceTime and switching on lights

Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, is apparently pushing the tech company’s development of household robots—and the first to debut may be a home robot designed to autonomously roam around while supporting FaceTime calls and switching lights on whenever a person enters the room.

People who worked on Apple’s robotic projects told The Information that the AI-driven home robot, code-named J595, could be named HomeView Ultra in line with Apple’s new HomeView stationary smart display. The company is reportedly aiming to launch the robotic product with a possible price tag of $1,000 or more by 2027, although development delays may push that back to 2028.

The earliest prototypes of the home robot first came out in 2018 and received approval from former Apple CEO Tim Cook to continue the project. The Information describes Apple’s engineers as trying to give the robot more capabilities beyond being a “fancy way to make FaceTime calls” in order to justify a high price tag, even as the team has spent years refining the software and incorporating more AI technologies.

However, the robot’s few reported features seem underwhelming so far when compared with existing smart home devices and systems, or even a run-of-the-mill robot vacuum with a clearer use case for households. Is there a market for a smart home device costing more than $1,000 that moves around while hosting FaceTime calls, automatically handling room lights, and occasionally ordering the family cat to get off the dining table?

One of the Information’s sources also described Apple as having a very small team of about 10 “true roboticists,” with many members of the initial engineering team having departed over the years. The software side boasts a significantly larger team of approximately 300 people.

Still, Ternus has been backing this home robot as well as a separate Apple project focused on developing robots for household tasks like folding clothes, according to The Information. The latter would presumably require robotic arms and manipulators, though it’s unclear if that means Apple has ambitions to develop a general-purpose humanoid robot for household use like robotics startups 1X and Figure AI.

From a technical and safety standpoint, Apple’s initial focus on a limited-purpose home robot still makes much more sense right now than any attempt to develop a general-purpose autonomous robot that could pose greater risks when operating near humans. The question is whether Apple can find enough customers willing to pay whatever it charges for a limited-purpose home robot.

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