Apple is expected to unveil new smart home products today, 13 October, in what MacRumors reports it is calling an "experience" rather than an event. By that account there is no streamed keynote: the reveals are expected to arrive as a batch of press releases, with selected media getting hands-on at an Apple Experience in New York at 9am Eastern time, which is 9pm in Malaysia. For a Malaysian buyer, the useful question is not the show but the shelf.
Beyond signalling the home category with its "Welcome home" framing, Apple's Newsroom and product pages named none of the specific products as of this afternoon. The reporting rounded up by MacRumors points to three: a new countertop home display with a camera and speakers, an updated HomePod mini, and a new Apple TV 4K. We set out what the rumoured hub could mean for Malaysia when the invitations first went out. None of that is official until Apple posts it, and it has published no price or specification, so treat the details as expectations rather than facts.
What is not in doubt is what the current lineup costs here today. On Apple's Malaysian store this afternoon, the HomePod mini sells for RM599 in five colours, and the Apple TV 4K runs RM949 for the 64GB Wi-Fi model and RM1,149 for the 128GB version with Ethernet. If the reporting is right, the expected announcements update both, and these are the numbers a new model will be measured against.
Whenever Apple posts prices for the new models, the US figures will not convert neatly to ringgit, as our comparison of the iPhone 18 Pro across the two markets showed. A phone is not a speaker and does not tell you what a HomePod will cost, but it is the reason to wait for the price Apple's Malaysian store posts rather than converting the New York figure yourself.
The box is also only part of the cost of living in Apple's living room. Apple's TV streaming subscription is a separate cost on top of the box, and there have been cheaper ways into it before, such as a past promotion for LG smart-screen owners that we covered at the time. It is worth remembering before paying full price for the hardware and the subscription together.
For the official details, watch Apple's own Newsroom after the event. Until Apple posts Malaysian prices for whatever it reveals, the RM599 HomePod mini and the RM949 Apple TV 4K on the shelf today are the baseline any new model has to beat.
Image(s) courtesy of Goran Ivos on Unsplash.
