All eyes are currently on Apple’s exciting Mac launch week, but the company has something more unusual up its sleeve for next year: a smart display with an oddly familiar design.
In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman predicts that this long-rumored product will resemble the “sunflower” iMac G4 from 2002 in physical design, with a screen on top and a curved base at the bottom. This is now considered a classic of industrial design, but Apple hasn’t done anything similar since, preferring to either integrate the innards of the machine into the screen itself (as in the modern iMac) or use a tower separate (like in the Mac Pro).
Of course, the smart display won’t look exactly like the 2002 iMac. For one thing, it will be considerably smaller. Gurman says the screen itself will be roughly the size of two iPhones side by side, which suggests something in the range of 150 x 150mm. This screen will be placed “at an angle” on a small base reminiscent of the circular bottom of the iMac, Gurman explains, although in functional terms this format means it looks a lot like a HomePod with a screen.
“The small size fits with the idea that the product will be relatively inexpensive and easy to install in different rooms of the house,” he writes. The device is intended to function as a hub for smart home products and is expected to eventually sit alongside a more expensive sibling display featuring a robotic limb.
For more information on Apple’s two smart displays in development, check out our coverage from last month. These are not new rumors, although as is usually the case with such projects, we are gradually learning more about the details, such as this month’s design information.
