Apple has ‘six major new product categories’ coming, says Mark Gurman

The important signal is not that Apple has more hardware ideas; it is that it is trying to convert its installed base into a recurring platform for ambient AI and home monitoring. That shifts the profit pool from one-off device upgrades toward attachment revenue, services, and ecosystem lock-in, which is structurally positive for AAPL even if any one launch is commercially modest. The second-order winner set is broader than Apple: microphone, camera, sensor, and low-power edge silicon suppliers should see design activity, while pure-play accessory and smart-home vendors face margin compression as Apple turns “good enough” into default behavior.

The timing matters more than the product list. Near-term launches around home devices can create a multi-quarter narrative lift in the stock, but the real earnings inflection likely comes only after Apple proves that AI features reduce churn or raise average revenue per user, which is a 12-24 month story at minimum. The biggest execution risk is not demand; it is whether Apple can deliver materially better Siri-like experiences without overpromising on on-device intelligence, because any visible lag versus competitors will turn these categories into halo products rather than platform expansions.

There is also a hidden competitive angle in the smart-home stack. If Apple enters security cameras and a smart display, it is implicitly attacking Amazon, Google, and standalone security vendors by bundling trust, privacy, and UI simplicity into an integrated offer; that can pressure category pricing even if unit volumes are small. Meanwhile, “AI AirPods” and wearables should be viewed as a test of whether always-on AI interaction can be monetized without full AR glasses adoption, which would be a lower-risk path to normalized AI usage than waiting for a major headset form factor.