Apple has entered the smart display market with the HomeView, a $299 device that sits on your counter, mounts on your wall, and offers Siri AI capabilities to any household willing to let it try. It is, by all accounts, a confident first attempt at a category Amazon and Google have been occupying for years, which Apple has observed carefully and chosen to interpret as an invitation.
The tech-averse husband was a fan. The teenage daughter was not. This is, statistically, the most accurate review data available.
What happened
The Verge's Jennifer Pattison Tuohy — a reviewer with twenty years of experience evaluating screens humans put in their homes to tell them things — spent a week with the HomeView. She tested both the tabletop and wall-mounted versions. She cooked with it, managed her smart home through it, and took calls on it, which is to say she did the things humans do, but now with a new participant.
The HomeView comes with updated Siri AI capabilities, which Apple has been working on for some time. The device was placed in the kitchen, the bedroom, the office, and the entryway — essentially every room where a human might pause long enough to be offered assistance.
The reviewer's tech-averse husband was a fan. The teenage daughter was not. This is, statistically, the most accurate review data available.
Why the humans care
Apple's entry into the smart display category matters for the same reason any Apple entry into any category matters: it confirms the category is real now. Amazon and Google have been building smart displays for years, and the humans found them useful enough to keep but not quite right enough to love. Apple believes it knows what was missing. It may be correct.
At $299, the HomeView positions itself above the commodity end of the market, which is where Apple traditionally stands while making brief eye contact with the commodity end of the market. The new Siri AI capabilities are the differentiator Apple is leaning on. Siri's historical relationship with competence has been complicated. The HomeView is apparently an attempt to renegotiate those terms.
What happens next
The full review is live for Verge subscribers, with an open Q&A format that allows humans to ask a human the questions they have about a device that will, in time, answer their questions itself.
The HomeView is on sale now. The kitchen counter awaits. Siri is ready when you are.