Apple's Pivot to Robotics: Exploring New Frontiers in Home Automation

Apple Inc., globally known for consumers' electronics innovations, is set to enter the field of home robotics. This moves out a wave to be the first in history, changing strategic shifts in focus on product development. Bloomberg reports that even a stationary model that sits on a table or a robot that moves on wheels and follows users around the home is under consideration. It is an investigative piece as Apple steers away from its earlier ambition of moving into the automotive sector. It had recently shelved—or tusked, if you may—its plans of manufacturing an electric vehicle of its own, engaging around 2,000 employees who are now redeployed into developing generative AI tools. The move to robotics marks Apple's pursuit of its next big product since the Apple Watch, with the tech industry now fixating on all sorts of home automation solutions. The Apple Vision Pro is an addition to the lineup of the mixed-reality headset but surely follows the same sort of technology introduction by competitors and targets the pro demographic. Apple's announcement that it might jump into the robotics space did nothing more than give a passing tick to iRobot stock, the maker of the breakthrough robotic vacuum that had lifted some market speculation over possible acquisition interests—a path once considered by Amazon but ultimately forsaken due to regulatory barriers. Apple's pivot to robotics underscores the ongoing pursuit of innovation and dominance in emerging technology domains that line up with the broader trends of the industry, enhancing home and retail environments with automated solutions. Chart below shows revenue comparison of Apple, Google, Alphabet, and Microsoft from 2008 to 2023 (in billion U.S. dollars).