Despite no hardware refresh, Apple recently tweaked the packaging for its HomePod minis, as spotted by Parker Ortolani (@ParkerOrtolani on X). When the HomePod mini originally launched in November 2020, it initially came in space gray and white. It wasn’t until a year later when Apple offered additional colors to its tiny smart speaker: orange, yellow, and blue. All of those models originally came with color-matching boxes that show illustrations of the device from the side and top. Since then, the HomePod mini has not been updated ever since it launched; however, in July 2024, to keep the lineup fresh, Apple replaced the space gray color with the midnight color, which is made of 100% recycled mesh fabric.
Now, Apple changed the box designs for the HomePod mini to feature just a plain-white box that’s now line with the full-size HomePod’s packaging. Instead of the tinted background to match the color you pick, the HomePod mini’s packaging now comes with a color-matching Apple logo along with a stylized HomePod mini logo on one side. Additionally, to reach Apple’s environmental goals to be carbon-neutral by 2030, Apple did away with the plastic-wrap packaging in favor of a tear-to-open packaging that we’ve seen across many recent Apple products. This change was quite overdue, but it was better late than never to change the packaging that will be better for the environment overall.
Apple has killed the colorful HomePod mini boxes… pic.twitter.com/FyOZQ7awWL
— Parker Ortolani (@ParkerOrtolani) March 21, 2025
Mark Gurman expects the second-generation HomePod mini to launch later this year, and we could see some form of an iPad/HomePod hybrid, “HomePad“, to make its debut then as well.
