March 10, 2025 – In a recent edition of his “Power On” newsletter, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman revealed that Apple has delayed the highly anticipated upgrade of its Siri artificial intelligence. This decision has also impacted the rumored smart display project from the tech giant. Originally slated for a release early this year, the smart display was envisioned as a smart home hub featuring a screen, similar to offerings from major smart home competitors like Amazon and Google.
According to the report, Apple had hoped to introduce the product in March. However, since the device relies partly on the upgraded Siri capabilities, its launch has been postponed. Meanwhile, Apple has opened up an internal testing program, allowing selected employees to take the device home and provide feedback.
The smart display is expected to be Apple’s first smart home hub powered by Apple Intelligence, running on the tvOS system. It will support native Apple applications such as Calendar and Notes, and recent rumors suggest it will also be compatible with Apple’s Messages app. However, Apple has indicated that the development of its upgraded Siri is taking “longer than we anticipated” and hinted that it may not be part of iOS 18 as initially promised, stating that it will be released “within the next year.”
Given that the current version of Apple Intelligence does not yet offer smart home functionality, it seems unreasonable to launch the smart display without the completed Siri AI upgrade. In the meantime, it’s worth noting that Apple’s competitors appear to be making progress in the smart home space.
Amazon, despite facing challenges in integrating artificial intelligence into Alexa, has announced the launch of Alexa Plus, which will first be available on its Echo Show smart display series, including the recently introduced Echo Show 21. Google also began rolling out a similar feature called Gemini last December, but it is currently limited to some Nest speakers. Nevertheless, both companies’ offerings are still in limited promotion stages and have not fully entered the public market.
