AppleA crucial moment for all-out efforts to enter the smart home marketHowever, the core hardware executive in charge of related business has chosen to leave at this time. According to Bloomberg News, Brian Lynch, who served as Apple's senior director of hardware engineering for home devices since 2022, has officially resigned and joined smart ring manufacturer Ora as senior vice president of hardware engineering. This personnel change was confirmed by Ora CEO Tom Hale, and it will obviously add further uncertainty to Apple's smart home strategy, which has been repeatedly delayed due to the Siri reconstruction setback.
From iPod to Apple Car: The Departure of a Veteran Hardware Developer
Brian Lynch's departure has attracted attention due to his strong hardware background.
Before taking over the home devices team in 2022, Brian Lynch was a senior engineering manager on Apple's self-driving car project, which was officially shut down in 2024. Prior to that, early in his career at Apple, he was involved in the development of several iPod products. The timing of this seasoned veteran, whose roles spanned from iPod and Apple Car to smart home solutions, leaving just before product launches is particularly sensitive.
Currently, Brian Lynch's responsibilities have been taken over by Matt Costello, an executive who also leads the audio engineering and Beats product lines, and he reports to John Ternus, senior vice president of hardware engineering.
Siri becomes a "burden": Smart home products are forced to stagnate.
Brian Lynch's departure has been widely interpreted by foreign media as a microcosm of the morale waning within Apple's smart home division. For years, Apple has consistently lagged behind Amazon and Google in the smart home market, always playing catch-up in terms of the speed of new device launches, functional innovation, and third-party ecosystem support.
Reports indicate that Apple has been actively preparing for a counterattack in recent years, planning to launch a series of new products, including a high-end smart home screen with AI and facial recognition capabilities, a desktop robot device with a 9-inch display, and advanced home security and automation sensors. Brian Lynch has been responsible for the hardware development of these new devices.
But all these highly anticipated products are stuck at the same hurdle: Siri. Apple originally planned to launch this smart central control screen last year, but due to difficulties in developing the next generation of Siri, the product has been repeatedly delayed. The upgraded version of Siri is considered key to providing personalized data and intelligent interaction; without it, these hardware devices would lose their soul.
According to current information, this smart display may not be available until September of this year at the earliest, while the desktop robot and sensor are expected to be delayed until 2027.
Oura's "Apple poaching tactics": A comprehensive layout from health to hardware
In contrast to the turmoil at Apple, Brian Lynch's choice to join Ora appears ambitious. This company, known for its smart rings, has been consistently poaching talent from Apple in recent years. In 2025, Ora recruited Ricky Bloomfield, Apple's Chief Medical Officer, from its health team, while its design director, Miklu Silvanto, also previously worked on Apple's design team.
Brian Lynch's addition is seen as a key step for Ora in strengthening its hardware engineering capabilities. The company was valued at $110 billion in a funding round late last year. Hiring a veteran who led the hardware development of the iPod and Apple Car will undoubtedly help Ora maintain high standards of hardware quality and supply chain management as it expands its product line in the future.
This is not an isolated case: Apple has recently been plagued by frequent high-level personnel changes.
Brian Lynch is not the only high-ranking executive to leave Apple recently. In the past few months, Alan Dye, head of user interface, and Lisa Jackson, head of environment and government affairs, have also departed. Former AI head John Giannandrea and the general counsel also plan to leave later this year.
More notably, Brian Lynch is at least the second executive to leave the home hardware division in recent years. DJ Novotney, the division's former vice president of project management, left Apple in early 2024. These successive personnel changes suggest that Apple's smart home business may be facing more severe challenges than is publicly known.
