Apple’s next big thing could be a robot that follows you around

For years, Apple has been rumored to be working on its own electric car. But earlier this year, the company reportedly killed its plans in favor of AI. Now in a bid to look for new growth potential, Apple could be looking into a personal robot. This is according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter.

According to the report, Apple is exploring the idea of personal robotics. One of those potential ideas is a robot that will follow users around the home. The concept of a personal robot isn’t exactly new. In fact, earlier this year at CES 2024, Samsung unveiled an updated version of its Ballie robot.

The main thing to note is that so far, a lot of these personal robots exist merely as concepts or proof of concepts. Sony is probably the only company that comes to mind that has actually released such a device to the public in the form of its Aibo robot dog. But beyond that, we haven’t really seen many other companies try to tackle this market.

Details are scarce about this rumored Apple personal robot. There is a good chance that it might never make it to market. We imagine the costs of owning such a device would be astronomical, plus there is also the question of whether we actually need something like that. If anything, it could be a hint of the type of products and robot technologies that Apple could be pursuing in the future. So until we hear otherwise, don’t get your hopes up at an Apple robot just yet.