Apple Teasing Home Robots? Top Analyst Predicts Surprise for iPhone Giant

Rumors that Apple is creating humanoid robots have begun to flow into once more after Apple analyst at TF Worldwide Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo, tweeted Wednesday that the world’s largest firm is exploring humanoid and non-humanoid robots for its good house ecosystem.

Although chatter about Apple’s robotics ambitions intensified after Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner tweeted Wednesday that individuals ought to “prepare to satisfy the latest member of the household” at an Apple launch occasion subsequent week, hardly anybody believes the corporate will likely be introducing a humanoid robotic. Most hypothesis factors to a brand new rendition of the compact iPhone SE.

Nonetheless, Kuo, who is understood for his correct predictions relating to Apple’s product roadmap—typically primarily based on insider info from Asian provide chain sources—excited hypothesis together with his tweet.

“These merchandise are nonetheless within the early proof-of-concept stage internally,” Kuo wrote. “Whereas the trade debates the deserves of humanoid vs. non-humanoid designs, provide chain checks point out Apple cares extra about how customers construct notion with robots than their bodily look.”

The push to develop humanoid robots accelerated in 2024, with corporations like Tesla, Figure, Nvidia, Agility Robotics, and Boston Dynamics introducing robots designed for human-centric workplaces. (Based on a latest report, Meta is even making significant investments in humanoid robotics.)

The speedy developments in AI and robotics have led to daring predictions, together with by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who speculated in October that robots may outnumber people by 2040, doubtlessly surpassing 10 billion in simply fifteen years.

Regardless of these daring predictions, even Kuo famous that the timetable for a proof-of-concept design varies, and that Apple’s robotic manufacturing is unlikely to start out earlier than 2028.

“Many initiatives by no means progress past proof-of-concept,” Kuo wrote. “The Apple Automobile might be essentially the most notable instance of a challenge that acquired caught at this stage.”

That is not the first time that pundits have instructed that Apple may be introducing a robotic to its product lineup. And clearly Apple, which produced a TV sequence that includes a very Apple-like home robot, isn’t precisely tamping down hypothesis.

However what kind its first providing would possibly take was hotly debated. Certainly, Kuo famous that Apple used the time period “anthropomorphic” as a substitute of “humanoid,” suggesting that maybe the corporate’s robotic roadmap would launch with one thing that carried out human chores with out trying like Sunny.

“Apple execs are skilled on the shopper journey,” futurist and founding father of the Unaligned Publication, Robert Scoble, informed Decrypt. “We do not have robots in our houses, they usually know we aren’t able to have a humanoid robotic in ours but, so they may begin with a wide range of extra particular, constrained robots to get us used to them.”

Whereas Scoble is skeptical of Apple’s capability to steer in AI and robotics, he instructed that the corporate’s robotic lamp, featured in a paper by Apple’s Machine Studying Analysis division in January, could possibly be a stepping stone towards bigger ambitions in humanoid robotics. (See video on the backside of page.)

“If carried out nicely, and it seems to be like it’s, it can assist customers develop snug with Apple as a robotics firm,” he mentioned.

Different robotics consultants identified that, Boston Dynamics videos however, the sphere has a protracted method to go earlier than humanoid robots are prepared for prime time.

“We’re nonetheless within the stage of creating these robots understand the setting and act like people,” Professor of Pc Science at USC and co-founder of Sahara AI, Sean Ren, informed Decrypt. “The mental skills of considering after which making selections is at the same stage to ChatGPT.”

Phil Elmer-Dewitt, who runs the favored Apple Weblog Apple 3.0, went even additional: “If Apple markets a humanoid robotic in 2028—and even 2038—I’ll eat my hat.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward