Apple’s frenetic HomeView video showed the one use-case for this device

The launch video Apple created to show off the long-awaited HomeView product couldn’t have been more different from its usual fare.

While just watching it gave me a feeling of anxiety, I suspect it perfectly encapsulates the one use-case for this device …

HomeView is cute. I said a couple of years ago that I hoped that Apple would lean into the quirkiness of the iconic iMac G4 design, and in my view the company has borrowed enough of that heritage while still making it look like a modern device. What was rather less cute was that launch video – but that’s not accidental.

I’m a minimalist who places a premium on a home which feels calm and organized, and the typical Apple product video bears a strong resemblance to what my home would look like if I had about ten times the income (space in London is expensive!). The HomeView video, in contrast, felt to me utterly chaotic.

I found it both frenetic and jarring. But I think that’s exactly the point. I’ve spent enough time in the homes of friends with teenage kids to get the sense that this is probably a pretty accurate picture of a typical weekday morning. It also depicts the one scenario I could see making sense for this device.

If you’re either single or live as a couple, then it’s hard to see too much benefit to a HomeView. It doesn’t do anything we can’t do on our own devices or on HomePods with the existing multi-user Personal Requests feature we’ve had since 2019. (And no, I don’t find the digital photo frame justification convincing simply because the display is so small.)

Of course, the same argument could be made about families with kids, but when you’re trying to gather everybody together around the breakfast table, then I can definitely see the appeal of having a single device in one place be the way everyone gets their digital needs met. It’s a more wholesome picture than each family member silently staring at their own iPhone.

How realistic a goal this is is something I will leave to the parents to advise, but it certainly strikes me as a valiant attempt.

If you’re a parent with teenage kids, did the video accurately depict a typical morning, and do you think a HomeView could bring everyone together in the way Apple hopes? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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