People waiting to buy the brand new smart screen from the tech giant might be surprised to learn that their Apple device is already quite old. Reports indicate that the HomeView hardware has been sitting idle in storage facilities for the better part of a year. The highly anticipated home hub was originally ready to ship much earlier, but major software delays kept the physical units locked away from customers until now.
Software holdbacks caused finished screens to sit in storage
According to a recent newsletter from industry insider Mark Gurman, the finished hardware units gathered dust in warehouses for months. The company had the physical products fully manufactured and packaged long before they were ever announced to the public.
The main roadblock was not the hardware itself but the voice assistant running inside it. The entire product pipeline was choked by significant delays with Siri software updates. Since the smart display relies heavily on voice controls to function properly, the company could not release the screens until the artificial intelligence features were ready to go.
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The delayed release schedule impacts how the new hardware feels
This long pause means that buyers will receive devices built with older components than they might expect. While the outside looks fresh, the internal chips and display technology have been locked in boxes for nearly twelve months.
The smart screen is finally scheduled to hit retail shelves soon, alongside a planned store reset on November 6. Shoppers checking the retail price and launch timing should know that the underlying hardware was essentially finalized last year. It raises questions about how long this first generation device will last before it needs an internal refresh to keep up with modern standards.
The technology giant will need to prove that its updated software is good enough to make up for the older hardware inside the box. As the smart hub finally reaches living rooms, the real test will be whether the long wait was actually worth it.
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