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According to a report by Bianniu.com on August 26, according to Bloomberg, Mark Gurman wrote on Sunday that Apple is looking for the next major product after its flagship iPhone and plans to launch a series of products based on robotics technology.

In the latest Power On weekly article, Gurman said that the failure of Apple's driverless car project may not be a complete failure because the technology behind the giant rolling robot concept can be applied to other fields.

After about a decade of burning through cash at a rate of $1 billion a year, Cupertino shelved the Apple Car project and shifted its focus to generating artificial intelligence.

The company is starting to think about other products that could be moved by robotics, Gurman said, adding that it’s still in the early stages of figuring out how to best use the technology.

Gurman wrote that Apple plans to launch a desktop device codenamed J595 in the near future, which may have a large iPad-like display with a camera and a robotic actuator base.

He expects the product to be launched in 2026 or 2027.

Mobile robots and even humanoid robots may follow in the next decade.

By the way, Elon Musk’s Tesla is developing a humanoid robot called Optimus.

Gurman said Kevin Lynch, who led the car team and watch software engineering, now oversees the robotics project and works with Apple's head of artificial intelligence.

He said the company has hired top robotics experts from places like the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

Gurman said a key job in robotics is to create personality, and Apple is developing another human-like interface based on generative artificial intelligence.

Gurman said Apple has set out to solve a number of first-world problems. Some of the use cases mentioned by the Apple expert include:

Reach for a device left in another room

Take a picture of an object or start a video conference when the user is not holding the device or sitting directly in front of it

Operate or check things at home while you are away.

Gurman also raised the possibility of attaching robotic limbs to iPads, making them more useful for video conferencing or browsing the web for recipes.

Apple also plans to launch machines that can do household chores, such as loading clothes into the washing machine or scrubbing dirty dishes, but those may be a long way off since the ideas are still just sketches on whiteboards, Gurman said.

The columnist expects advances in artificial intelligence technology to boost the project, and he said Apple's expertise in sensors, advanced silicon, hardware engineering and batteries, as well as its ability to map the space around a device, could also come in handy.

Gurman said this could be a great time for Apple to work on robotics because the shelved car project could free up hundreds of engineers with extensive experience in self-driving technology and robotic systems to actively pursue the idea.

He said that with successful robotics devices, Apple could succeed in the smart home market, where it is currently experimenting behind Amazon and Alphabet's Google.

"The desktop may ultimately help Apple's home devices stand out," he added.

Gurman said robots are currently expensive and most consumers may not be willing to accept the concept. He also believes that technical issues need to be solved, such as having hardware that can successfully move through cluttered spaces and navigate multi-story buildings.

To bring the plan to fruition, Apple may also need more talent, including more engineers.

But Apple insiders believe the pursuit has promise.

“If companies really want to find another way to be in consumers’ lives, robotics probably makes the most sense,” Gurman said.

Apple closed up 1.03% at $226.84 on Friday.