Apple retail teams are quietly preparing stores for a wave of new home products this fall, according to Mark Gurman in Sunday’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. Layout teams are rearranging the accessory walls known internally as Avenues and adding new accessory bays to make room.
Two of the products behind that shuffle are already known. Apple is planning an upgraded Apple TV set top box and a new HomePod mini, both of which have been in the works for well over a year.
The bigger signal is the scale of the retail changes, which looks larger than a simple refresh of two existing devices. Gurman suggests the long anticipated home hub with a display is also coming, and a product like that would need a new operating system, a new interface and dedicated demo space so shoppers can actually try it in store.
We covered the earlier report that the new Apple TV and HomePod mini were nearly ready for launch back in June, and Apple has since been tied to a broader Siri powered smart home push this fall. The retail preparation now underway suggests those launches are close enough that stores need to be ready.
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