Apple's Tabletop Home Robot Slips to 2027 or 2028 on Software Delays

Apple has pushed its rumored smart home robot to next year at the earliest, and possibly to 2028, according to a report by The Information. The delay is not a hardware problem. The report states the robot's hardware "has been finished for around two years," while the software remains unfinished.

The device carries the internal codename J595. Former Apple employees quoted by The Information predict the commercial name will be "HomeView Ultra," following the naming pattern of the HomeView smart display that Apple launched last month.

The price target sits at roughly $1,000, according to the report, well above the HomeView display. Component costs may push it higher still, with The Information citing potential price hikes for RAM and other parts as a factor that could lift the final figure beyond that mark.

Why has the launch slipped?

The mechanism behind the delay is a software shortfall, not an engineering one. According to The Information, the robot's software team pushed for the launch to be postponed. The team also "attempted to strip back some proposed features and focus the product on a few capabilities related to FaceTime and automating home tasks, like switching on a light."

That decision matters for what it says about scope. A finished chassis, display and robotic arm have waited on code that Apple could not yet make reliable enough to ship, so the team cut the feature set rather than launch a half-working product. In plain terms, the hardware arrived early and the intelligence arrived late.

What is known about the design?

The physical form of the device has been described in two separate reports.

• Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said in 2024 that the robot could take a stationary, tabletop design resembling Pixar's famous lamp.
• The Information adds detail: a nine-inch display that swivels on a robotic arm.
• The device carries cameras and sensors for functions such as following a user around during a FaceTime call.

Gurman's 2024 reporting set the design direction two years before the current delay reports, and The Information's account largely confirms the tabletop concept while adding the display size and arm mechanism. The two reports agree on a stationary device that moves its screen rather than a robot that walks.

How does the robot fit Apple's home strategy?

The HomeView Ultra would sit above the HomeView smart display in Apple's home lineup, if the predicted name holds. The HomeView launched last month, giving Apple a foothold in the smart display category for the first time.

A robot at the $1,000 level would move Apple well beyond the display's price band and into competition with premium home devices rather than mainstream smart speakers or screens. The reported focus on FaceTime and simple home automation, such as switching on a light, suggests the first version will aim at a narrow set of everyday tasks executed well, rather than a broad assistant platform.

The gap between the finished hardware and the unfinished software also illustrates where the difficulty now lies in this product class. Building the arm, the display and the sensors is solved; making software that reliably understands and acts inside a home is not. That constraint, not manufacturing, sets the timeline.

With hardware complete and a reduced feature set now the stated focus, the remaining question is whether Apple's software team can close the gap in time for a 2027 launch, or whether the HomeView Ultra waits until 2028 — and whether RAM price movements force the price above the $1,000 mark in the meantime.