Article 6KW26 Apple Set to Create Humanoid Robots: Your Future Household Assistant in the Making

Apple Set to Create Humanoid Robots: Your Future Household Assistant in the Making

by
Krishi Chowdhary
from Techreport on (#6KW26)
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  • After the failure of the EV project, Apple is reportedly working on personal home robots that will help you finish your chores
  • Inside sources revealed that the company is desperately looking for the next big thing" and a new source of revenue
  • The closing of Apple's EV project led to the dismissal of 600+ employees

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Apple is reportedly working on building personal home robots' that will follow you around the house and help you complete your chores. If this project sees the light of day, it could well be the next big thing for Apple!

The news was revealed on Wednesday by Apple insider Mark Gurman and confirmed by some other engineers who do not wish to be named, especially because the project is private and at a very early stage.

Apple's Obsession with Finding the Next Big Thing

Apple has recently been, for a lack of better word, obsessed with finding the next best thing that would also become a major source of revenue. As of now, Apple's main income comes from iPhones- which is also under the DOJ's scanner as it has accused Apple of monopolizing the smartphone market.

A while ago, Apple told its investors that the future of the company lies in three domains: mixed reality, smart home, and automotive.Mixed Reality

While Apple's Vision Pro headset does open up a new line of products for the company, it will be at least a few years before it can become a significant revenue contributor - and that is if it can perform better than the competition such as the Meta Quest 3.

The Vision Pro is a super expensive piece of modern tech with a rather limited production line, plus the early responses from buyers have been a mixed bag, to say the least.

The EV ProjectNext comes EV cars - Apple's once most ambitious project that was shut down after a decade-long effort.

EV cars could have added billions of dollars to Apple's revenue. But unfortunately, a source close to the project revealed that because of a significant drop in the global demand for EV cars, Apple investors were not very keen on betting their money on it.

Additional factors for Apple pulling the plug on this operation include high prices and lack of adequate charging stations. When Apple finally walked away from this project, it resulted in 600 employees being laid off.

Tim Cook had said that job cuts would be the last resort for the company. They tried to manage expenses by slowing down hiring and shifting people to AI projects. However, in the end, some people had to be let go.

Read more about Darwin AI, Apple's latest AI acquisition.

Smart Home Products

Apple's third area of interest is smart homes. After stepping into the mixed reality market and facing failure with its EV project, this is Apple's new baby.

Apple has created a home-like setup near their Cupertino campus for testing out its smart home products.

Sure, personal home robots are grabbing the headlines, but that's not the only idea Apple has. It was reportedly also working on a prototype for an advanced tabletop home device that would use robotics to move around a display.

For example, the display would be able to copy head movements such as nodding - even on Facetime. It would also be able to lock in on a single person among the group during a video call.

While the project initially excited some of the top Apple executives, including hardware engineering chief John Ternus, reality soon stepped in.

The biggest challenge is balancing the weight of the robotic monitor on a small stand.

Apple was also worried that customers might not want to spend too much on this device - and if history is anything to go by, Apple is anything but cheap.

In the end, the disagreements between the executives put the project on hold.Whether or not Apple pursues it again is yet to be known.

How Did Apple's Investors React to This News?Of late Apple has been working on multiple ideas and then scraping many of them. So, investors reacted rather cautiously to the news of personal home robots. At the time of market close in New York, Apple's stock price didn't show much jitter and was up by a soothing 1%.

iRobot Corp (maker of Roomba), on the other hand, saw a sudden spike of 17%, probably because people thought that Apple's personal robot project would benefit them. However, the hype was short-lived as the stocks had only gained 2% at the time of closing.

The post Apple Set to Create Humanoid Robots: Your Future Household Assistant in the Making appeared first on The Tech Report.

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