The rumor mill has been running fast regarding new products in new categories to be released by Apple. Tim Cook and Eddy Cue have both recently said that we can expect something big from them this year. So we are waiting. Not so patiently. (It has already been 4 years since the first iPad release…!)

So. Next week at WWDC everyone expects and demands new hardware to be unveiled.

Will it be a new Retina Macbook Air?
Yes, it could be a 12 inch retina laptop Air running a new ARM version of the upcoming OS X.10.10 , or what I think will be called: OS 11.

Will it be an iWatch or iWearable?
Yes that could be it, although we can expect Apple to come up with something much more clever.

Or could it be a new Apple TV set top box?
Perhaps! But not as you expect it to be.

The Apple TV story

It was almost three years ago that we heard from the late Steve Jobs that he cracked the design and function of a new Apple TV. Everyone expected that he meant a physical TV, using some form of Siri and an App Store like we know from the iPhone. But we also heard the complaints regarding this. Would anyone buy a new television set every other year (iPhone), or every 4 years (iPad)?
No, they won’t.

So where is the value in this for Apple? Apple needs a new success story. And that means: sell you hardware that you want to replace every other year with shiny new hardware.
It has also been said that the TV business is a commodity business. Competitor Samsung sells so called Smart TV’s for only a couple hundred bucks.
So what could it really be like this new TV experience?
Last week it struck me. Apple has us blinded. Again.

It’s an iPod, an Internet Communicator and a Phone

Apple likes to disrupt markets and come up with a clever combination of hardware that makes things possible. With at the center of it a powerful or smart computer, nice software and complementary services.
And that’s exactly what they are going to do again. And this time they will enter the heart of your house.

It was only last week that we heard about Apple’s wish to enter the home automation market. To connect everything in your house with some sort of Software platform. But where would it connect to? To your iPad, iPhone or upcoming iWatch? Or will it connect with the iCloud?

Just connecting the services with the iCloud and running from there doesn’t make any sense. Apple is not a services company (they are really poor at that). They are a hardware (and software) company. So building a home automation server in the cloud doesn’t make any sense. And just letting a service connect to other hardware from other manufactures doesn’t bring them extra sales.

It is a tv set top box, a router and a storage device. We call it it the iHome hub.

Apple likes to control at the center of an experience.
For example: the iPhone will be the heart of your portable life for some years to come (like Marco Arment likes to point out).
So to enter the home automation market, Apple needs some hardware they can put at the center. And there I see a combination of things Apple can connect and integrate.

Airport Extreme, Time Machine, Apple TV, Mac Mini, Siri, AirPlay, iBeacon. Apple already has the hardware and services it needs to connect. And create a perfect product to be at the heart of that experience.
I think Apple will launch the new Apple TV as a Home Automation Hub. The iHome hub (or whatever smart name you can give it).
It just makes so much sense.

Having an iHome hub means an Apple device controls the Heart of your house. (free of Ads, unlike Google).

The iHome hub will be able talk to all the connected devices in your house: the iPads, iPhones, but also with other stuff like your refrigerator running Android, all the connected lights in your house and the Google Nest devices.

The iHome hub can be the server that streams television programs to your television.
Apple could release a small device like the Chromecast, that you can plug into your TV. Or in every TV in your house. And you can control this TV streaming with your iPhone, iPad or whatever iDevice, or just use your voice. (Siri like).

Apple could even release special iBeacons with microphones and speakers that will listen to you wherever you are in the house (and the iHome hub will know where you are). It will respond to you with Siri’s voice and intellect.

The iHome hub can have some storage for backing up all your photo’s and video’s and storing a backup of all your iCloud files. Just for save keeping (and for fast streaming). And they can provide you (at additional cost) with an unlimited iCloud backup services ala BackBlaze ($5 a month).

Finally, the iHome hub can be reached through the internet to give you an update of all the stuff going on in your house.

This will be just the beginning. Just wait what clever developer and accessory makers come up with as they connect it with this new iHome hub.

Let’s see what Apple dazzles us with. It will probably be even more magnificent.