Seeking new revenue streams, Apple is pushing ahead with development of an expensive tabletop device for home use that combines an iPad-like screen with a robotic limb.
The company now has a team of hundreds of people working on the device, which uses a thin robotic arm to move across a large screen, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The product, which relies on actuators to tilt the screen up and down and rotate it 360 degrees, would put a spin on home products such as Amazon’s Echo Show 10 and Meta Platforms’ discontinued Portal.
The device is intended to serve as a smart home command center, videoconferencing machine and remote home security tool, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the work is not public. The project, codenamed J595, was approved by Apple’s executive team in 2022 but has begun formally scaling in recent months, the people said.
