Apple Wants To Put A Robot Arm In Your Living Room, Is This The Next Big Thing?

Apple continues to work on new projects as it looks for opportunities to increase revenue, as sales of the iPhone and Macs aren’t seeing the growth the company wants to achieve. One such project is a tabletop in which an “iPad-like display” is attached to a robotic arm, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

This project has gotten far enough along that Apple has assigned several hundred employees to work on making it a reality, and has been given the codename “J595.” Gurman says this new device “is envisioned as a smart home command center, videoconferencing machine, and remote-controlled home security tool.” The company is aiming for a price point of $1,000 and a release in 2026 or 2027.

Additionally, Apple is looking to round out this new device with the inclusion of Siri alongside Apple Intelligence running on a custom version of iPad OS. This will enable users to issue voice commands as they interact with the tabletop device, and would also allow for the device’s display to move along with the user.


It’s puzzling to see Apple put so much effort into this tabletop device when the company already has a device from its history that would get close to what’s being described by Gurman. The iMac G4, which debuted in 2002, is a beautiful computer whose design could easily be repurposed for a new product.

Keep the base sans the electronics, replace the display with the iPad-like display mentioned in the report, and the arm provides the mobility. It wouldn’t be robotic, but it doesn’t need to be when the Center Stage feature works well already. It just feels like Apple is trying to reinvent the wheel with this new effort.

Time will tell if this tabletop device eventually makes it to market or just become another Apple Car type project that is never fully realized.