I’m guessing if they’re successful, the result will be something extremely expensive.
Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'
71–80 of 162 posts
Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'
#72"Smart home" has really fallen flat across the board, from smart speakers to the Roomba. It would be great if Apple changed that, but I'm not optimistic. I just don't think people really want smart home devices all that much.
I like smart devices for their automation potential. I use smart plugs to turn on and off lights, coffee makers, grow lights, heating mats. The ability to quickly program a plug to turn on every morning at 10am and turn off again at 10pm is valuable to me. It's even more valuable if you get into hobbies like aquarium keeping where you can automate lights and fish feeders. Yes, you can do all of these things manually,…
The thing with a fish feeder is that it can be completely analog and still work fine.
Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'
#73facepalm emoji
Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
I want a smart home, but I also do not want to send my data to anyone else and I don't really have the time to cobble something together. If apple can refrain from sending the data to icloud or any other servers, then I would be very interested.
That exists today. Apple's Homekit is the only real solution for a smart home that doesn't send everything to/from the cloud.
I'm trying to update to v2 of HomeKit in the Home app but it won't let me unless I login to iCloud. From what I recall v2 of HomeKit relies on a hub spoke model, as opposed to v1 which relies more on broadcast packets.
Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'
#75I know being late to the game and doing the tech "right" in terms of design and usability is kinda Apple's thing, but lately it seems like they have been only picking areas that weren't successful for a reason, like insurmountable technical difficulties or lack of customer interest, and no amount of Apple's design or marketing magic can fix that. See – self driving, AR/VR, smart speakers, folding phones, now home rob…
Not playing everywhere is an existential risk. Because IT is so integrative, if anyone gets a huge leg up in any sector, Apple risks getting shut out in a lot of other sectors. Spatial Computing/iVision is, for example, a claim in vr. It gives them some exposure to the market, some ability to extend & integrate their existing application/computing ecosystem into this medium. Ditto for all the other pieces; they're al…
That's true, _and_ I think there's a tendency to think that Steve Jobs only launched things he knew were immediate hits – when products that look influential in retrospect, like iPods and the MacBook Air, took a few years to really take off.
Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'
#76Sounds like Apple needs to increase its dividend, this does not sound like a promising use of capital for Apple.
I was about to say the same thing, Apple have too much capital and they do not know what to do with it. It would be better to give it back to their investors instead of...this.
Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'
#77This seems like one of the most hideously complex products you could possibly choose. Self driving cars were already out of reach for Apple and their team abandoned the effort. How do they think they are going to navigate and clean people’s homes!?
Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm shocked by your comment. Everyone that doesn't enjoy cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, or taking out the trash would LOVE a home robot that really works. Of course, these are very hard problems to take on -- much harder than a "smart" light switch -- but the market is absolutely there.
> Everyone that doesn't enjoy cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, or taking out the trash would LOVE a home robot that really works. We are far, far away from any of the remaining tedious parts of those things being done competently by a robot. - Dishes: dishwashers already do the majority of the labor intensive part. - Laundry: the washer already does the labor intensive part. - Mowing: if you don't t…
Upvote for robot vaccums - even value ones are pretty good these days (imo)
Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'
#79For me the "transformative" aspect of personal robotics is... maintenance
Why does every store have self opening doors, but no houses do? I think it's because paying ~$500/year to get it running again when it breaks feels like a waste to almost any home owner. The same with other random innovations, like a car stacker to push your car into the garage roof when not in use so you can use the garage (the hydraulics would break), fans and pumps to move heat in or out of the house or water around the garden, they're a pain because they break, it's only worth it if you're running a commercial operation.
So homes end up with the absolute minimum number of things that could break. Calling out trades for the few things people must have requires smart people who are physically able, that have their ticket in a protected industry (in many countries). But a robot could have the same knowledge and physicality - at a fixed yearly cost.
If that were to happen, homes would transform as all sorts of things that require very occasional maintenance would start to appear. If something breaks even a very weak robot could diagnose it, find the parts online, have them delivered and probably install them.
Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'
#80> Near its campus in Cupertino, California, Apple has a secret facility that resembles the inside of a house — a site where it can test future devices and initiatives for the home. Apple has a condo in Cupertino?
UL has, or had, a whole house in Fremont (maybe Milpitas) associated with their Fremont lab location for testing Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/etc interoperability in a "real-world" setting. They're not the only test lab to do something like that, either.
It would not surprise me at all if Apple had a similar facility for themselves, especially for internal demos, user testing, and sanity checks.