While most rumors about the HomePod claim that Apple will add a screen to a future model, new research shows that the company is thinking about turning it into a horizontal soundbar.
Proposed horizontal HomePod
The HomePod mini hasn’t changed since its launch in 2020. Aside from its cancellation and then revival, the original HomePod hasn’t changed much since it was announced in 2017.
So you’d think it’s Apple’s second least-regarded product after the Apple Pencil. Behind the scenes, the company continues to plot.
Previously, and repeatedly, we have heard about HomePods with large touch screens that will arrive one day, although never today. There have also been patents showing some sort of screen woven into the fabric surrounding the HomePod, and that fabric could be touch-sensitive.
But now Apple has been granted a patent on the design of what looks like just a horizontal HomePod. Instead of the original’s cylinder and tennis ball like the HomePod mini, this version has speakers set far away from a central Siri screen and tilted at an angle.
The newly granted patent, called “Audio Speaker System,” is extremely brief. Aside from brief titles for its six drawings, the only text describes the patent as “The ornamental design for an audio speaker system, as shown and described.”
However, those six drawings also hint that this is a HomePod to which users can also connect other sources. One figure, tantalizingly labeled only as “a rear view of it,” shows a variety of ports.
A patent drawing shows a series of ports on the back.
Currently, nothing at all can be connected to a shipping HomePod except the power cable. There are no ports or plugs, so DJs can’t connect turntables to the HomePod.
It’s debatable which would be more welcome in a future HomePod, the ability to connect other sources or the wider, less tall speaker arrangement.
While there’s no scale in the drawings, the size of what appears to be the Siri screen suggests it would be at least closer to the full-size HomePod than the HomePod mini.
But the shape of the design is also at least reminiscent of the Beats Pill speaker range. The drawings lack the Pill’s control surface and the rear is only vaguely similar, but the patent may be for a possible Beats product.
However, it is not surprising that there are similarities because one of the two inventors credited with this patent is Robert Brunner. He was Apple’s chief designer from 1989 to 1996 and has since worked with Pentagram and Ammunition Group, both of which created headphones for Beats.
Side view of the proposed wide and horizontal HomePod
However, keep in mind that the presence of a granted patent is not evidence that a product comes from Beats or Apple. However, it is proof that Apple has at least spent some time designing such a model.
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