Mike Wuerthele
A report claims that a supplier has been picked for the display for a new HomePod with screen — perhaps fulfilling a prediction made almost two years ago.
HomePod with touch screen displays have been running for a long time, with a release date always seemingly six months or more away. However, if a report on Friday morning by DigiTimes is to be believed, Apple has picked a supplier for the screen.
Tianma, a Chinese screen manufacturer, has reportedly been picked to supply the OLED screen for the long-rumored device. And, a company also said to be attached to the project, BYD, is said to be the only assembler of the product.
At present, Tianma appears to mostly supply the automotive industry with displays. They supply more than OLED, with supply lines for MicroLED, and touch screen layering on existing screens. The company is well-established in China, with a large US presence as well.
The company was predicted to be a supplier for the HomePod screen by none other than Ming Chi Kuo almost two years ago. In a prediction made in March 2023, Kuo was particular about what he believed was coming.
"I predict that Apple will unveil a redesigned HomePod featuring a 7-inch panel in 1H24, with Tianma as the exclusive panel supplier," he said at the time. "The HomePod, which equips a panel, could enable tighter integration with Apple's other hardware products, marking a significant shift in the company's smart home strategy."
While the timetable has dramatically shifted, the accuracy in which he picked the supplier is of note. Tianma was predicted to enter the iPad supply chain if things went well, but as of January 2025, they are not an Apple supplier.
DigiTimes has good sources within Apple's supply chain, but is notably less accurate as it pertains to Apple's timelines. Friday's report is more the former than the latter kind of report.
HomePod with screen rumors have been going on for some time
The screen-enabled HomePod is thought to be similar in concept to others produced by rival smart speaker producers, and could offer consumers similar functionality. As well as giving visual control over functions, the display could potentially play media back to users, access to smart home functions via the Home app, or even handle FaceTime calls if it includes a camera.
In code references spotted in mid-February 2024, the tvOS 17.4 developer beta 3 issued by Apple at the time refers to a new device by the name "Z314."
The unreleased item is capable of running tvOS, which both Apple TV hardware and HomePods effectively use. However, the HomePod version is designed to not include a user interface, due to a lack of screen.
As part of that beta, the HomePod firmware got SwiftUI frameworks, as well as the hangtracerd tool for UI debugging in iOS apps. It seems unlikely that Apple would include that functionality unless it was preparing a HomePod that could use it.
The Z314 shown in code was said to be running an A15 Bionic chip, and with internal and production versions apparently being tested. Given how much time has passed and the fact that the A16 is likely in production in Arizona now, we suspect that this may get the newer processor if it arrives in 2025.
Apple has also considered a HomePod with a small touchscreen, with a prototype from late 2023 claimed to be an actively-worked-on inbound product rather than a cast-off prototype.
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7 Comments
It's still a little baffling to me how Ming Chi Kuo gets his reputation for accuracy. In this case, he maybe (or maybe not, we don't know yet) got a detail correct, but has definitely been wrong about the timeline. So the correct detail "is of note" and the rest is forgotten. In the end, if that supplier is used (even if not exclusively as has thus far been predicted) it seems likely Kuo will once again be lauded for his "accuracy." To be fair, he gets some things right and he gets some things wrong. It just seems like there's a lot of confirmation bias involved in developing his reputation as being more accurate than others. It just feels a bit like when a medium conducts a seance, tossing out hooks until someone at the table confirms that they did indeed have a great-aunt whose name begins with an "R."
I agree, time to stop giving people like Ming any credit for this type speculation, it's just a joke.
A better analogy is a professional dart player saying he can hit the bullseye blindfolded after being spun around a few times, then being given lots of credit for hitting the opposite wall with his dart.
Here's my prediction (I'm not a professional clairvoyant, just a developer & Apple user for the past 3 decades)
"Apple will release a new product this year, or maybe next year, or even before the end of the decade.
It'll be based on a HomePod and an iPad, or maybe not.
If it is, it'll have a screen made by a Chinese company and it'll be touch enabled and be able to show movies and play music and be able to play what you want it to do "just by talking to it"using Apple Intelligence, it may even control your lights, security system, heating system and window blinds. It'll have a couple of generations old A'nn' chip and it might be called the HomePad or something else.
I also predict new iPads that will look almost identical but that will be better than the last generation and have better battery life, and use new A'nn' series chips.
New Macs that will be better than the last generation, use newer M'nn' chips and have better battery life, but look remarkably similar to the last generation.
New Apple Watches which might, or might not, be slightly have slightly more rounded corners, they'll be a 1/2mm thinner and have better battery life and use brand a new A'nn' chipset.
There will also be the first of the Apple home robots coming in the next decade, these will have similar functionality to HomePad, but they'll have wheels or legs, or fly and will be able to follow you around but they won't be able to do the dishes or do the laundry, which is what we really want.
All of these I expect to use chips manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor, Broadcom and Samsung plus a few other Taiwanese & Chinese suppliers!
I expect most of the components to be manufactured in the USA, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, India, Indonesia and any other large country that is threatening to stop Apple selling products in that country"I also predict none of us are using our existing products to their full potential, so let's have more articles that just concentrate on using the full capabilities of what we currently have ....
Would love to see the rumored HomePod device have the ability to seamlessly be integrated onto a wall instead of just as a stand alone unit.
I really hope Apple doesn't go with an "iPad on a Stump" design.