I covered this ground ahead of the launch, in a column where I said the main question would be, “What is it for?” I hoped that the launch would see Apple succeed in explaining the purpose of its latest foray into the smart home, or rather how that purpose is relevant to a mainstream audience. Maybe a full event would have given the company more space to explore the broader societal changes which it thinks will make the HomeView relevant to the average U.S. homeowner, but I suspect the unavoidable truth is that this simply isn’t a product with broad appeal.
What can you do with a HomeView? You can monitor and control a smart home, of course, but I suspect that Apple knows this is a niche concern; the clue is how far down the press release you have to go before you reach any mention of smart lights, locks, and thermostats (the 17th paragraph, by my count). In the future it’s plausible that we will all have HomeKit-compatible smart homes, but for now most people don’t. And those who do tend to control them with their phones, while using a HomePod or Apple TV as the hub.
While Apple waits for the world to catch up with the smart-home revolution–a process which will be accelerated by the launch of the HomeView, but still needs time–it has to fall back on its other functions. You can FaceTime and read recipes, talk to Siri AI, or play music with onscreen lyrics. You can use it as electronic photo frame, or an alarm clock. With the exception of superior audio you’re essentially getting an iPad which is locked in one place, has a smaller screen, and can’t install third-party apps.
But the HomeView is not an iPhone, the sort of chameleonic device that will take over the world by being relevant and useful to virtually everyone. It’s not even an iPad, versatile but less portable and caught in the middle ground between phone and laptop. The HomeView is a specialist: a product capable of delivering one specific experience for a handful of purposes. And in that sense it’s closer to the first iteration of the Apple Watch or even, I’m sorry to say, the Vision Pro. It’s a luxury; a want-to-have rather than a must-have.
The HomeView’s saving grace is that at $299 it’s relatively affordable for a luxury. That’s significantly cheaper than the cheapest iPad, a product which customers have historically been willing to buy for casual use. (Although I suspect they were a lot more willing when it was closer to the HomeView’s price earlier this year.) It’s significantly cheaper than an Apple Watch Series 12, and not much more expensive than an Apple Watch SE.
You can scarcely call the HomeView a bargain or an impulse purchase, but this is a price point where customers are willing to be persuaded. And when it’s a completely new Apple product, and you can throw in the hype factor of that seductive first impression, you can bet it will sell just fine.
