For the general public, Apple is above all the iPhone, the iPad and the Mac. If the Apple brand has marketed other devices for several years, such as the Apple Watch or AirPods, they have not reached the level of notoriety and profitability of the iPhone. Then at a third level, we find more “niche” products, less known to the general public. This is particularly the case for the Apple TV or HomePod. At the very bottom of this list is the AirPort.
This small network router was abandoned by Apple in 2018, but recently, rumors around the production of an “in-house” Wifi chip have reignited debates around its existence. But in the latest edition of his newsletter, journalist and Apple expert Mark Gurman put paid to that idea.
He explains that Apple's next Wi-Fi chip would “theoretically” be powerful enough to “transform an Apple TV or a HomePod” into an access point for a wireless network. However, he did not confirm that Apple would follow up on this idea. In any case, he clarified that the arrival of a new AirPort was not to be expected at the moment, the project having been dead and buried in the eyes of Apple for years.
Apple as a future ISP?
Apple could nevertheless consider the idea of reviving this product within a few years. The Apple brand is developing more and more solutions for satellite connections. It could, like a Starlink, rely on a constellation of objects in orbit to connect devices to the internet.
With this connection capacity, one could imagine that the HomePod or Apple TV would serve as a “control point” for WiFi in a home. All this is nevertheless a very risky theory, which is based only on suppositions. Apple could very well leave control to the ISPs (internet service providers).
By : Keleops AG
