Apple’s new home devices are a bet on its upgraded Siri AI

Less than two months into the job, Apple Chief Executive John Ternus presided over his second major product launch Tuesday, introducing new home devices that includes Apple’s first smart home display.

The gadgets offer more ways to generate hardware sales.

More important, they’re ideal hosts for Apple’s upgraded Siri, giving the company a new distribution channel as it plays catch-up in AI.

The biggest reveal in Tuesday’s product launch was HomeView, an entirely new Apple device.

The device looks like a giant Apple Watch and resembles the 2002 iMac G4, which had a hemispherical white base topped with a flat-panel LCD screen.

Apple also announced a new Apple TV 4K with an upgraded chip, the HomePod mini 2, and a collection of home accessories developed with LG and Schneider Electric , including a video doorbell, a smart thermostat, and a smart lock.

HomeView, which has a 7-inch display, costs $299 and is available Nov.

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A wall-mounted version is also offered.

Apple’s announcement prominently featured Siri AI, its upgraded assistant, which will be available in beta on HomeView and the new Apple TV 4K.

HomePod mini 2 will receive the assistant through a future software update.

The upgraded assistant has been rolling out on iPhones and will now be central to Apple’s home products, which the company hopes will get more people to try the new Siri and help build out its AI ecosystem.

“This is them rebooting their entire approach to home,” Anshel Sag, an analyst at market research firm Moor Insights & Strategy, told Fortune .

“If Siri’s that much better, then there’s an opportunity for them to reboot all the stuff that they weren’t successful with because Siri was not good.