Do You Trust Apple? (Stratechery Article 10-19-2026)

1. Key Themes

Theme: Apple's "trust dividend" (integration + privacy) is real and is the core of its selling proposition

Apple's value proposition has been constant since 1999: easy and private

Thompson draws a straight line from the original AirPort launch to HomeView. The consistency of the pitch is what builds trust.

"Apple's selling proposition has, in many respects, never changed: modern technology that is easy to use and private too."

Apple wins by marrying partners' technology to its ease-of-use layer

The Home Collection (LG, Schneider Electric) mirrors the 1999 Lucent partnership. The key detail is the elimination of separate apps and accounts.

"Apple doesn't have to do everything itself in the home, just as they didn't have to invent wireless networking in 1999; what they need to do is 'marry [partner's] technology with [their] ease-of-use technology'... The key detail is 'no separate app or account required'; that points to deep integration with Apple products, from setup to day-to-day usage."

Privacy works as a halo that can launder a partner's reputation

"Apple's privacy umbrella is strong enough that LG's very sketchy privacy track record is likely to be a non-issue amongst potential customers."

Theme: The smarthome's core problem is cross-device reliability, which is where an integrator creates value

Smarthome use cases are real; the failure point is devices not working together

"I have, of course, just laid out five compelling use cases for the HomeView, but it wasn't hard! These are all real, genuinely useful capabilities for a new home device. And notice what the limiting factor is for the middle three: actually getting different devices to work together reliably."

His examples: thermostats that "mysteriously lose their connection," doorbells that "randomly [get] disconnected, and I never notice until I miss a delivery," and cameras that "become inaccessible... the moment you need them."

Theme: Apple's trust deficit: it abandons products that don't move the needle

The AirPort shutdown is the precedent

"That right there is one reason to not trust Apple in the home: the company already decided once that products that didn't move the needle relative to the iPhone weren't worth their time, even if delivering an integrated home experience was still something Apple was uniquely positioned to provide."

Subscription revenue may change the incentive, but at a trust cost

Cameras require paid iCloud+ for event history, which makes the home a services on-ramp.

"Of course to some this might be another betrayal of trust: Apple used to sell you products, now they want to sell you on-ramps to recurring revenue."

Theme: The decisive trust question is Siri AI, and the home raises the switching costs of being wrong

Siri's delays and quality gap shaped HomeView's fate

Thompson quotes Gurman on a roughly two-year delay caused by Apple's AI crisis and notes the hardware "betrays its age."

"The culprit was Apple's AI crisis, which left the company without the one piece of technology the HomeView absolutely needed: a working version of its revamped Siri assistant."

Siri AI has shipped but is slower and less reliable than the old deterministic version, while competitors now act rather than just retrieve

"In this world Siri AI has shipped, and while it is more capable than what came before, it is much slower, and makes more mistakes with basic tasks that the deterministic old Siri handled reliably... agents like Muse, Instinct, Dots, or Grok Bots not only integrate information but actually act on it; new Siri already feels long in the tooth."

Home hardware is a long-duration lock-in to a single AI, with opportunity cost

"One doesn't replace one's thermostat or cameras or doorbells every year... committing to a world controlled by Siri AI means forgoing a world controlled by any other AI."

Theme: Tim Cook's tenure and the strain on Apple's doctrines

Services focus, privacy, and the Cook Doctrine are in tension

"The Cook Doctrine states that Apple needs 'to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make', but Apple doesn't own and control the models underlying Siri."

"How did Apple's obsession with services revenue fit in that rubric, particularly when said obsession rose in conjunction with stripping out every part of the business that didn't move the needle in terms of revenue, even if it made for a better user experience? Privacy, meanwhile, is great as a strategy credit; what happens when it gets in the way of making products that work?"

2. Contrarian Perspectives

Personal AI-built software may beat Apple's integrated smarthome for power users

Thompson argues against the consensus that Apple's integration is the best path, claiming AI collapses the cost of building custom software, including by decompiling existing software.

"The fact of the matter is that with AI you can decompile almost all existing software — there is a revolution happening in gaming over the past few weeks, as game after game is decompiled to source and ported to any platform you wish — and you can write your own. That means my software that interacts with my agent in the way I want it to for everything; that's way more exciting than praying Apple delivers the right API and that 3rd-party developers don't suck."

Evidence: he already runs a Raspberry Pi/DAKboard display as "one of our most-used and most-beloved pieces of technology."

Against Gruber: HomeView is compelling despite the "why another screen?" objection

Gruber questions "why anyone would want to add one (or more!) additional ever-present screens." Thompson counters that the use cases are legitimate and the poor marketing is the real problem.

"In fact, I think that HomeView is pretty compelling... maybe highly produced marketing videos sold as product keynotes aren't the worst idea in the world."

The late launch may be a feature: Apple "might have got this product out just in time"

Because few consumers will commit to Siri AI as their home's primary interface right now, a low-adoption launch limits the downside.

"The answer right now, in 2026, is probably not too many, which is to say Apple might have got this product out just in time. I think there is something here, even if Apple's marketing team doesn't seem to be able to explain it very well."

3. Companies Identified

Apple

• Description: Consumer hardware, software, and services giant.
• Why mentioned: Central subject; HomeView, Home Collection, Siri AI, AirPort history.
• Quotes: "I trust Apple, more than anyone else, to at least aspire to delivering on that vision, and these 2nd-party partnerships are a great start."

LG Electronics

• Description: Consumer electronics maker; Apple Home Collection partner.
• Why mentioned: Co-designed Home Collection accessories despite a poor privacy record.
• Quotes: "Apple's privacy umbrella is strong enough that LG's very sketchy privacy track record is likely to be a non-issue amongst potential customers."

Schneider Electric

• Description: Industrial/energy-management company; Home Collection partner.
• Why mentioned: Co-designed Home Collection accessories.
• Quotes: "designed in collaboration with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric."

Lucent Technologies

• Description: Telecom/networking company; Apple's 1999 AirPort partner.
• Why mentioned: Historical precedent for Apple partnering to marry others' tech with its ease of use.
• Quotes: "We've worked with Lucent on this for the last 18 months, hand-in-hand to marry their wireless technology with our ease-of-use technology."

Google

• Description: Technology and AI company.
• Why mentioned: Apple's AI partner for Siri.
• Quotes: "the company will deliver compelling experiences through its partnership with Google."

Meta (Meta Superintelligence Lab)

• Description: Social/AI company.
• Why mentioned: Surprising thaw in relations with Apple on AI.
• Quotes: "surprising thawing with Meta via its Meta Superintelligence Lab."

Muse, Instinct, Dots, Grok Bots

• Description: AI agent products.
• Why mentioned: Competitive agents that act on information, making new Siri look dated.
• Quotes: "agents like Muse, Instinct, Dots, or Grok Bots not only integrate information but actually act on it."

DAKboard

• Description: Home display service (time, weather, calendar, photos).
• Why mentioned: Thompson's own beloved smarthome use case.
• Quotes: "It has, in the intervening years, been one of our most-used and most-beloved pieces of technology, looked at multiple times a day every day."

Eero

• Description: Mesh WiFi maker.
• Why mentioned: Part of why Apple's router exit seemed reasonable, though Apple "still could have done something useful."
• Quotes: "mesh WiFi products from the likes of Eero."

Spotify

• Description: Music streaming service.
• Why mentioned: Needs a recently unlocked iPhone on HomeView, unlike native Apple Music.
• Quotes: "Apple Music is also natively supported on the HomeView, whereas you'll need a recently unlocked iPhone to use Spotify."

4. People Identified

Steve Jobs

• Description: Apple's late co-founder and CEO.
• Why mentioned: 1999 AirPort/iBook keynote as the template for Apple's partner-plus-ease-of-use strategy.
• Quotes: "Jobs was planting seeds for the future, seeds that Cook harvested."

Tim Cook

• Description: Former Apple CEO (retired earlier in 2026).
• Why mentioned: Scaled Apple, but his tenure's trade-offs show in HomeView's problems.
• Quotes: "it was Cook that took Apple from 1 to $436 billion in revenue and $118 billion in profit last year."

John Ternus

• Description: Apple's current CEO.
• Why mentioned: Tasked with making Apple's technology "actually useful."
• Quotes: "the job for Ternus will be ensuring that Apple's 'ease-of-use' technology is not just easy but actually useful."

Mark Gurman

• Description: Bloomberg reporter covering Apple.
• Why mentioned: Reported HomeView's long delays and its link to Siri.
• Quotes: "Finished units have been sitting boxed up in warehouses for the better part of a year, waiting for the software to catch up."

John Gruber

• Description: Author of Daring Fireball.
• Why mentioned: Skeptic of HomeView's value proposition.
• Quotes: "HomeView needs to be in a prominent location for its display to serve any practical purpose. Apple's initial pitch for it doesn't earn that prominence for me."

Matthew Costello

• Description: Apple VP of Hardware Engineering.
• Why mentioned: Quoted on Home Collection's positioning.
• Quotes: "Apple Home Collection makes it easy to choose smart home accessories with confidence."

5. Operating Insights

Partner for the hard layer, own the integration and setup experience

The AirPort/Lucent and Home Collection/LG-Schneider parallels show you don't need to build everything. Own the seamless experience (one-tap setup, single app, no new account) and let partners supply the commodity technology.

"Each accessory is encrypted end-to-end in Apple Home... everything is managed through the Apple Home app — no separate app or account required."

Don't let a core dependency (here, Siri) gate a whole product line

HomeView was built around a Siri that wasn't ready, leaving finished hardware idle and aging. Sequence launches so that hardware doesn't depend on a single unproven software component.

"That left the hardware ready to go, but the software nowhere near finished."

Explain the product with real, plausible use cases

Apple's introductory video failed by showing nonsensical scenarios, even though strong use cases existed.

"most of the use cases, as Gruber notes, are nonsensical... maybe highly produced marketing videos sold as product keynotes aren't the worst idea in the world."

6. Overlooked Insights

Apple's router exit forfeited a concrete technical advantage

Controlling the access point could have solved a real iPhone problem and might have anchored home lock-in, but the business was "not big enough to bother."

"one of the biggest challenges in designing a wireless network is that the iPhone aggressively holds onto access points; if Apple had continued to design its own access points it could, even today, provide a superior experience."

HomeView's multi-user features depend on iPhone state

The teen-message scenario has a hidden dependency: the iPhone must be on the network and recently unlocked, undermining the idea of HomeView as a standalone device.

"which has to be present on the network and unlocked in the past several hours for that functionality to even work"