Mark Gurman, reporting for Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. has teams investigating a push into personal robotics, a field with the potential to become one of the company’s ever-shifting “next big things,” according to people familiar with the situation.

Engineers at Apple have been exploring a mobile robot that can follow users around their homes, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the skunk-works project is private. The iPhone maker also has developed an advanced table-top home device that uses robotics to move a display around, they said.

Though the effort is still in the beginning stages — and it’s unclear if the products will ultimately be released — Apple is under growing pressure to find new sources of revenue. It scrapped an electric vehicle project in February, and a push into mixed-reality goggles is expected to take years to become a major moneymaker.

I heavily doubt this is anything moronic like Tesla’s humanoid robot, which was actually just a man in a jumpsuit, but rather a product akin to Amazon’s Astro robot or a robot vacuum. Later in the article, Gurman writes that the company was exploring a product that could wash dishes in a sink, but I think a product like that would be too audacious and wouldn’t fit in with Apple’s existing products.

Apple manufactures personal computers, whether they be strapped to the face, on a desk, strapped to the arm, or in a pocket. A robot vacuum is a personal computer, but a humanoid contraption isn’t because the graphical user interface isn’t as important there — dexterity and motion are. Just as Apple doesn’t manufacture its own production equipment that it (Foxconn) uses to make its iPhones, it also won’t make a fully functioning robot straight out of a science-fiction film.

I’d be interested to see what Apple makes in this product category, but I’m also skeptical since these products haven’t been blockbuster hits before. Astro, for example, doesn’t have a killer use case since there aren’t that many things that a floor robot with wheels can do. I think Apple should spend less time engineering these experimental technologies and should instead focus on making its existing products more advanced, moving manufacturing away from China, and improving pitfalls Apple Vision Pro has.

These products, according to Gurman’s reporting, are aimed at the home only, which makes sense coming from a company like Apple. Instead of whatever Gurman outlines in his reporting, however, I think the way to approach this problem is to partner with existing home robotics companies, like iRobot, which manufactures the Roomba robot vacuum, and develop software that can integrate with HomeKit, Apple’s smart home platform. Imagine CarPlay but for other smart home products; they can run their own software made by their original manufacturers, but Apple can also contribute if users would like it to.

Apple makes software for its major hardware products, like the iPhone and the Mac, but these robots wouldn’t be their own stand-alone products — they would most likely need an iPhone or other Apple product to connect to and be controlled by. So in a way, it makes sense: Apple should work with third-party makers to make their products work better for Apple users, which is exactly how HomeKit operates now. That way, if the effort fails — as HomeKit has in many ways — it’s not on Apple to craft a remedy in the way it would be if Apple announced a robot of its own.

When Apple makes something, expectations are high, but if it works with another company, it isn’t much of a deal if the partnership fails. It will make headlines, but it will not be a failure for the company. Partnering with another firm may give Apple less to tout, but it also puts less pressure on the it to innovate, something that is sorely needed after the relative bust of Apple Vision Pro, which received a grand total of two weeks of media coverage.