Apple is reorganizing perimeter store layouts known as Avenues to introduce new smart home products, including a long-awaited home hub featuring a 7-inch display, an updated Apple TV, and a refreshed HomePod mini, according to retail reporting details.
Apple is quietly clearing physical space on its perimeter walls to make room for an upcoming wave of smart home hardware. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is reorganizing parts of its brick-and-mortar stores this fall to make room for new home products. Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says the teams responsible for store layouts are preparing changes to the “Avenues,” or the perimeter walls in Apple’s newer stores, where accessories like HomePod, Apple TV, AirPods, and Beats are displayed alongside third-party accessories. Store layouts in retail locations are undergoing a major shift this fall to accommodate new devices, signaling a broader retail strategy for the company’s home product ecosystem.
Rearranging the Avenues for New Hardware
The retail changes target the perimeter walls of newer Apple retail locations, spaces traditionally known as Avenues. While center-stage tables remain dedicated to iPhones and MacBooks, the outer edges historically house third-party accessories alongside items like AirPods, Beats headphones, and Apple TVs, as well as things like car vent mounts for iPhones and limited edition Play-Doh sets in stores where the formal Avenues label applies. According to reporting from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, retail teams are rearranging these sections and adding new accessory bays to prepare for an influx of upcoming gear. The work is said to involve rearranging sections of the Avenues and adding accessory bays for upcoming new devices.
Apple will need a dedicated space where customers can see how the hub works, what its purpose is, and how it fits into the wider home setup, Gurman reports. According to Gurman, Today’s store layouts aren’t particularly well suited to demonstrating such a product.
So if you’re going into the Apple Store to buy a dongle or some Play-Doh—or even if you’re there to drop major coin on a MacBook Pro—the new home hub products on display in the Avenues zone will, presumably, grab your attention, explaining why large-scale alterations are required to create a dedicated introductory experience for shoppers.
The Long-Awaited Smart Home Hub Arrives
While routine updates to established accessories are on the schedule, the scale of the store renovations points directly to a major new category launch: the company’s first smart home hub, otherwise known as HomePod with Display or “HomePad”. Gurman reported last month that the smart home hub will arrive at some point between October and early next year. However, it’s now sounding like the smart home hub might release alongside the updated Apple TV and HomePod mini, at least based on what retail stores are planning.
The upcoming device is expected to feature a 7-inch square display running a mobile-style operating system built around tvOS with Siri AI powering the device, and will be sold with either a tabletop base or a wall mount. Another new rumor for Apple’s Home lineup is that the hub will include an A18 chip as well. The hub will serve as the central controller for smart appliances and IoT doohickeys like your doorbell camera, supporting FaceTime calls and custom facial recognition interactions for different household members, if you’re into that sort of thing. Code strings uncovered in macOS Tahoe 26.7 last week suggest the home screen will use a Widget Gallery similar to the iPhone’s Lock Screen customization options. The code also indicates that the new device’s home screen could have many of the same options for icons, widgets, and clock faces, with widgets from a linked iPhone suggested automatically.
Refreshed Accessories Join the Fall Lineup
Alongside the new display hub, Apple’s retail preparation includes long-overdue refreshes for existing home accessories. At the very least, Apple should debut a refreshed HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K this fall, though the changes would suggest a third, more significant product is also on its way. Gurman said in July that both were nearly ready, with faster chips for Siri AI but no major design changes. Rumors indicate an A17 Pro chip or better in the new Apple TV, and an S9-series chip, improved sound, and a red finish for the HomePod mini, the current version of which is now over 2,000 days old. At the same time, an updated Apple TV set-top box is slated for release featuring faster processing chips to support Siri artificial intelligence functions, alongside a refreshed Siri Remote, though it isn’t clear what changes will arise.
Apple’s had a long backlog of Home products pending release, largely because of all of the delays involving the company’s Siri revamp. Now that Siri has come together, store layouts are actively shifting to bring the updated hardware out from the back rooms and directly onto the Avenues so we should see some of these products finally hit the market after years without a refresh.
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