Apple delays smart home display to September over Siri AI problems

TL;DR:

  • Apple has delayed its smart home display (codenamed J490) from spring 2025 to around September 2026 because the next-generation Siri is not ready.
  • The device itself has reportedly been finished for months, but Apple will not ship it without the AI assistant that is supposed to be its centrepiece.
  • Apple has turned to Google’s technology to power planned AI features after failing to develop them in-house, though it reportedly intends to phase out Google once its own model works.

Apple’s planned smart home display will not arrive until approximately September 2026, according to Bloomberg, marking a delay of more than a year from its original spring 2025 target. The hold-up is not the hardware. The device, which resembles a square iPad with circular app icons similar to the Apple Watch interface, has reportedly been complete for months.

The problem is Siri. Or more precisely, the problem is the LLM-powered version of Siri that Apple first announced in early 2024 and has yet to deliver.

A hardware product waiting for its brain

The J490 can be mounted on a half-dome speaker or attached to a wall, and includes facial recognition to identify users and personalise content like appointments, music, and news. Apple positions it as a central home AI hub, the first in a planned series of AI-focused devices including a pendant, camera-equipped AirPods, and smart glasses.

Those later products are reportedly not affected by the Siri delays. New HomePod and Apple TV models with built-in AI features are also in development.

Google as a stopgap

In an unusual admission, Apple said this year it would use Google’s technology to power the advanced Siri features it cannot yet build itself. The company intends to replace Google’s backend once its own AI model is ready, though no timeline has been given.

This arrangement is striking for a company that has historically controlled its entire technology stack. It also raises questions about the user experience: will consumers notice when the underlying AI provider changes, and will the transition introduce inconsistencies?

For the UK smart home market, the delay means Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Nest products will have the AI assistant space largely to themselves for at least another six months. Apple’s late entry will need to offer something meaningfully different to justify the wait.

Share this article