Apple's first dedicated smart home hub, HomeView, is now available for pre-order ahead of a November 13 release.
HomeView is a tabletop hub built around a 7-inch Liquid Retina display, letting owners control HomeKit and Matter devices by tapping the screen or talking to Siri. Pre-orders are open now, and retailers are using the weeks before launch to clear out compatible gear: Philips Hue bulbs, bridges and fixtures are discounted up to 35 percent on Amazon, alongside markdowns on Govee lighting, Aqara sensors and plugs, an Eve water sensor, and a Eufy robot vacuum.
Apple has spent a decade treating the smart home as an afterthought bolted onto the HomePod and iPad. A hub with its own dedicated screen is a tacit admission that voice control alone hasn't cut it, and it puts Apple in territory Amazon's Echo Hub and Google's Nest Hub have held for years. The accompanying deals are also a signal: they preview which third-party brands Apple expects to anchor the HomeView ecosystem, mostly Matter-compatible names already sitting in millions of homes.
Translation: Apple isn't building the smart home from scratch. It's buying its way into one that already exists, discounted bulbs included.