OpenAI's Smart Speaker: $400 and No Screen, Jony Ive's Bet

Three hundred, perhaps four hundred dollars. This is the price range that, according to early rumors, the new OpenAI smart speaker will have, the first hardware device from the ChatGPT company developed in collaboration with Jony Ive's design studio, LoveFrom. It is a donut-shaped object, without a screen, designed to sit on a bedside table or kitchen counter and to communicate with the user through voice, not through a display.

The most curious detail concerns the shape of the object itself: a donut, according to Bloomberg, made of quality metal and with a "premium" appearance. The dimensions remain compact, roughly the size of a hockey puck, and the device even includes some moving parts, a detail that remains unclear in terms of its exact functions.

No display, then. Instead of a screen, the OpenAI voice assistant communicates with the user through dynamic lights integrated into the body of the device, designed to convey status and "personality" during interactions. This choice goes against the market trend: Amazon with the Echo Show and Google with the Nest Hub have focused in recent years on adding screens to their speakers.

The project bears the signature of one of the most well-known designers in recent technology history. The device is indeed born from the collaboration with Jony Ive's LoveFrom studio, the former head of design at Apple, which translates into a particular care for the materials and tactile feel of the object.

The indicated price range, between $300 and $400, positions the device well above the usual range of smart speakers. For comparison, Amazon's smart home products range from about $40 to a maximum of $240. In short, OpenAI is not aiming for high sales volume but for an audience willing to pay a premium for a design object directly connected to ChatGPT.

The heart of the device remains OpenAI's artificial intelligence: every interaction occurs through voice, without the need to touch buttons or screens.

The OpenAI screenless speaker aims to perform the typical tasks of the category: controlling smart home devices, playing music and multimedia content, answering voice questions. The system should also refine its responses over time, adapting to the habits of its users: a promise that, at the moment, is not yet verifiable in practice.

Until today, ChatGPT has lived inside phones, computers, and browsers, always mediated by an operating system or a third-party store. A dedicated physical device changes the game: it gives OpenAI a direct and always active channel with the user, without going through Apple, Google, or Amazon.

The first rumors about the project circulated in mid-July 2026, while details on price and shape only emerged on August 6, 2026, according to Bloomberg and TechCrunch. The ChatGPT voice control integrated into the device is expected to hit the market in 2027, a timeline that gives OpenAI room to refine both the hardware and software capabilities. No official images of the product have been released yet.

The terrain on which OpenAI operates is not without obstacles. The smart speaker market has never been particularly profitable, as evidenced by Amazon's historical losses on the Echo line, and entering a category already dominated by giants like Amazon and Google remains an open challenge, especially with such a high price point. Complicating matters is the legal action taken by Apple against OpenAI, accusing the company of stealing trade secrets related to hardware development: an accusation that OpenAI denies, but which weighs on the debut of an already risky project.

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