The smart doorbell camera would use Face ID to unlock users' doors, Bloomberg News' Mark Gurman wrote in his Power On newsletter Sunday (Dec. 22). This camera could be released by the end of next year "at the soonest," Gurman wrote.

According to the report, the lock would work in the same fashion as an iPhone, unlocking automatically when it scans a user's face. Gurman posited that this device would "likely" work with existing third-party HomeKit smart locks and that Apple could also collaborate with a smart lock company "to offer a complete system on day one."

The camera, Gurman said, would likely use Apple's in-house "Proxima" combination Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip that's said to be rolling out for new HomePod Mini and Apple TV devices in the new year.

PYMNTS has contacted Apple for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

The aim is to give Apple a device that can compete with the likes of Amazon's Echo products and Google's Nest Hub, an earlier Bloomberg report said, with the company hoping to sell multiple units to consumers so they can have them in a variety of rooms and use them as an intercom system.

As PYMNTS wrote soon after that report, Apple's plans could indicate a broader ambition to capture a larger share of the smart home market, as consumers look for centralized control of their connected devices and seamless ways to make purchases via voice commands and touchscreen interfaces.

"AI-equipped smart home devices could become powerful marketing tools through personal data analysis," Szymon Markiewicz, operational product owner at tech firm Tietoevry, told PYMNTS. "Companies could customize offers and ads even more precisely to individual user needs, potentially boosting sales."