Apple's HomeView Spent a Year in a Warehouse Waiting for Siri
The HomeView units now heading to customers "have been sitting boxed up in warehouses for the better part of a year, waiting for the software to catch up," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported on October 18. Gizmodo turned the line into a headline the same day: Apple's new smart display collected dust in storage. For a product announced only days earlier, it is an unusual picture — the hardware was finished long before the software that makes it useful.
A Federal Communications Commission filing unearthed by MacRumors shows the device underwent regulatory testing in October 2024, running what is now known as HomeView software version 18. The filing describes a "smart speaker with display." In other words, the machine could already boot two years before it went on sale. Archyde traces the project back to early 2023.
Bloomberg had reported that the device, codenamed J490, was originally slated for spring 2025. The Next Web later estimated it arrived about 18 months late. Apple previewed a more capable Siri at its developers conference in June 2024, then said in March 2025 that it needed more time. Siri AI finally shipped in September 2026 alongside iOS 27, carrying a beta label and a waitlist.
The HomeView has no app store. It runs a small set of Apple's own apps and treats voice as the primary interface, which makes it unusually dependent on Siri. That dependency explains the warehouse: Apple could not sell a screen whose main feature did not yet work. Gurman's reporting frames the delay as a software problem, not a manufacturing one.
In the launch materials, Apple's worldwide marketing chief Greg Joswiak said the HomeView "is designed to be shared by everyone in the home yet feel completely personal to each user," switching to a personal interface when it recognizes a face. Apple has offered no explanation for the stored inventory. It has, however, explained the European gap: the HomeView is not sold in the EU because Siri AI is unavailable on iOS there, and Apple says it is working constructively with Brussels on a path forward.
The HomeView costs $299 in both tabletop and wall-mounted versions. It has a 7-inch square Liquid Retina display at 1088 by 1088 pixels and 220 pixels per inch, brightness from 0.3 to 500 nits, and an A18 chip. It recognizes up to six household members and can show nine camera feeds at once. Pre-orders opened October 13; shipping starts November 13 in the United States, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. India gets it at 39,900 rupees; Britain at 299 pounds.
Gurman suspects the early stockpile may have helped Apple hold the $299 price. The units were built before this year's memory shortage pushed component costs higher. If that reading is right, the year in storage was not simply waste but a hedge — Apple bet that software would eventually catch up, and that building early would be cheaper than building late.
Apple is arriving late to a category that is getting smaller. IDC puts global smart display sales at $2.3 billion in 2025, down from $2.5 billion in 2023. Amazon's Echo Show 8 sells for $199.99 and Google's Nest Hub for $99.99; Google has not released a new Nest Hub since 2021. Apple is charging more and promising a better conversation. Early orders already slip into early December for some colors, suggesting demand is not the problem.
Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management estimates the new home products, HomeView included, will add just under 1% to Apple's fiscal 2027 revenue. For now the device looks more like a beachhead: a way to put Siri in the kitchen and the living room, and to lay groundwork for services and subscriptions later.
Gurman also reports that Apple is developing a premium model, codenamed J595, with a roughly 9-inch screen on a motorized arm that can swivel 360 degrees toward whoever is speaking. It is expected in 2027 or 2028 and would sit above the current HomeView. The first generation waited a year for its software. The question for the next one is whether the software can stop making the hardware wait.