Anyone hoping to be able to use a HomePod with a screen on it will have to wait a little while before that happens, it seems. And it won't happen in 2023 at all.
That's according to a new report which claims that Apple has pushed plans for a screen-based HomePod until 2024 at the very earliest as it works to ensure it's putting money and resources into products that it deems most important. The HomePod with a display, it seems, isn't on that list.
The report in question comes via Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing in this week's Power On newsletter. Gurman says that Apple is keen to ensure that it doesn't have to lay off workers in the same way that competitors Google, Meta, and Amazon all have. Part of that seems to be ensuring that it isn't spending money where it doesn't need to but still funneling attention and finances to other projects.
With the screen-based HomePod now pushed out until 2024 at the earliest and possibly even later, Apple is thought to have chosen its Reality Pro mixed reality headset as the most important product/ That's expected to be announced during an event in the next few months, possibly during the World Wide Developers Conference that has historically taken place in June.
As for the HomePod, Apple still sells the HomePod mini and recently resurrected the HomePod proper a couple of years after it was first killed off. Rumors have for years suggested that Apple wanted to release a hybrid device that would cross a HomePod with an Apple TV - and this unnamed product seems likely to fit that bill if and when it's finally unveiled to the world.