(San Francisco) Apple seeks to diversify into home robots: the iPhone maker has given up on building a car, but is now exploring autonomous robot projects for individuals, according to a Bloomberg article published Wednesday .
Apple engineers are working in particular on a mobile robot capable of following users at home, according to the press agency’s anonymous sources.
They are also looking to develop an “advanced desk-top device capable of moving a screen” – but this project “has been added and removed from the company’s roadmap over the years”, according to after the article.
Apple established itself in homes and organizations first thanks to its computers, then with its iPods and especially its iPhones, which largely dominate the smartphone market in the United States.
Its tablets, connected watches and headsets are also very widespread, particularly among consumers who already own a device from the Apple brand.
But the Silicon Valley giant has not released a new device capable of setting the tone for an entire sector since the Apple Watch. Its mixed reality headset (virtual and augmented), marketed since this year, the Apple Vision Pro, arrives after its competitors and is currently targeting a professional audience.
At the start of the year, Apple abandoned its ambitions to build an electric car, putting an end to a project which has seen multiple twists and turns over ten years.
Nearly 2,000 employees of the Californian firm worked on this secret project, according to Bloomberg, and a good part of them were reassigned to the design and deployment of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the subject that has largely dominated the technology sector for the past year.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request from AFP.
Samsung, Apple’s main competitor in the smartphone market, and other companies have already moved into personal robotics.
In 2020, at the Las Vegas technology fair, the South Korean giant presented a robot in the shape of a small balloon that could track its owner, encourage them to exercise or give orders to other devices connected from home.
This year, it was its compatriot, LG, which unveiled a small robot on wheels, capable of interacting with the entire household, adults, children and pets.
And in 2021, Amazon launched “Astro” a domestic robot responsible in particular for patrolling the house in the absence of the owners.
On the group’s online sales platform, it is only available in its version for businesses, at $2,350.