A few weeks ago news surfaced that Apple has discontinued the HomePod speakers, but there has been a new development in this arena. Reportedly, the tech giant is working on developing a new HomePod-like speaker with screens and cameras. Several reliable news media also picked the news up whereas Apple has not commented on it. A new HomePod could be in development.
The California-based tech giant, Apple has recently started working on the new project, although the question remains why the company decided to discontinue the speakers in the first place. No clarification has been offered on behalf of Apple. Moreover, this is highly unlikely that Apple will launch the new product this year. A few news media outlets have reported that the updated HomePod will be launched in 2022. The new display-enabled HomePod might serve as a replacement for the speakers that Apple decided to discontinue.
There is a lot of speculation around this new device, so almost nothing is known about the upcoming Apple speakers. However, a few tipsters have mentioned that the upcoming HomePod Mini comes with a hidden temperature and humidity sensor, and the sensors measure only 1.5 x 1.5 millimeters. However, others have pointed out that the sensor has always been there since the device launched back in November; however, the same reports claim that Apple did not activate the sensors for unknown reasons.
It might be rare for any company to include unused hardware all of a sudden, but not completely unprecedented; we also have to keep in mind that Apple needs to compete with other speakers who are dominating the market, such as Google Nest Hub Max and of course, Amazon’s Echo. Since the company decided to abandon the larger HomePod in favor of the HomePod Mini, the users could see the inclusion of the sensors in future update.
