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Apple Aims to Boost HomePod Sales With New Audio Software Lead

B4rbelith said:
HomePods can be connected to the AppleTV through eARC, which means they can be an audio output for any device including Playstation, Xbox etc.
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Uh... So if I want to connect an Android phone to them, or a PC, how would I go about doing this? Or use them stand-alone via something like Spotify Connect?

eARC works when your TV supports it. I might have one TV in my house that supports it, and I don't plan on buying a new $800+ TV to support an overpriced $99 speaker.
 
If Apple really wants to compete in the smart speaker marketplace, they need to finally make some real Siri improvements. Siri still only understands half of what we say to her, she is constantly saying "I can't do that on this device" or something similar, and she give information totally unrelated to what I ask.

It has been YEARS and Apple's AI is way behind an on-line retailer? Embarrassing. Humiliating for Apple.

Apple should have invested the resources to dominate in AI personal assistance years ago and every year that goes by with this trash, the worse it gets.

Instead we get new voices telling us that they don't understand or giving us completely unrelated information and responses?

Pathetic for Apple, the innovation leader.
 
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I’m no expert with how people use speakers. But maybe release a firmware update to allow the HomePod to connect to non-apple devices via Bluetooth. Then make customers aware.
yes it’s not the best quality but a lot of everyday customers aren’t too bothered and just want their speaker to work with everything. I’d happily stereo pair two HomePods but because it won’t allow non apple devices to connect via Bluetooth it’s a no from me. I’m an apple user through and through but I don’t want a speaker that forces me to only connect apple products.
 
I would love to see an original sized HomePod with all the functions af a AppleTV and the discontinued AirPort Extreme built into one unit. A real Streaming Media hub. Let it WiFi to HomePod Mini's as rear channels in surround systems (the main HomePod can do the front stereo). Let it hook to external drives for media content too (like the Airport Extreme does). Really make a home media hub.
 
Orange Bat said:
I still think Apple may want to bring back a high quality HomePod at some point . . .
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B4rbelith said:
I'm very happy with my stereo pair of HomePods, and I've never heard anyone who owns them say anything but positive words about them. . .
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citysnaps said:
Still enjoying my seven HomePods. Every. Single. Day. Superb audio for their price. Looking forward to what's coming next in the HomePod family.
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tubular said:
I *hope* this mean that Apple is going to try again with the HomePod that isn't mini. I have three of the pineapple-sized ones, and I'm very happy with them.
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Me too. Four HomePods purchased when they were first released, they've all worked without issue every day since then and provide terrific sound.

The Siri complaints don't bother me, in my opinion that is a separate matter from the HomePod which is primarily a hardware product. I continue to be amazed by the sound quality for such a small speaker. I do use the smart speaker capabilities for accessing Apple Music and turning Hue lights on and off, no issues there either.

A second-generation HomePod with similar sound quality would be very welcome and I think Apple would learn from the experience of the past few years since HomePod was originally introduced, and come up with something that would be a very interesting product.
 
BigSmurf said:
An aux / optical port and associated electronics costs next to nothing for electronics manufacturers. This kind if components cost peanuts. Cost was not the factor, desire to fully lock in only to apple products and services was the reason.
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Next to nothing and nothing are two different things. Do you think that Apple would have ADDED those components while at the same time dropping the cost? No, $299 was the price they decided on and, to a populace that’s able to get competing devices for free (or 2 for 1) or $49, cost was absolutely THE factor. No matter how good Siri gets, if it’s competing against FREE, it’s not going to win.
 
robertpetry said:
If Apple really wants to compete in the smart speaker marketplace,
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they either need to make it VERY cheap, including 2 for 1 promotions, or give them away. I fixed that for you. :) If a customer’s looking at two devices, one for $99 and one for free OR $49 both of which are smart speakers, they’re not going to pay more just because “Siri is good”. I understand the sentiment that Siri could be better, but Siri being good is never going to beat cheap or free.
 
I have a Homepod. It's way too bassy and I wish I could fine tune that. Gives me a headache if I listen to it for more than 10 minutes. So I use it to find my phone/hear the weather and wake me up in the morning. I have Spotify as my music service (because my car has a built-in app for Spotify) Homepod doesn't support that so it's pretty much useless as a high quality speaker.

It's way overpriced for the amount of use I get out of it. So I've outfitted most of the rest of the house with Alexa.
 
CarlJ said:
Some Sonos speakers have the capability to be known to HomeKit as AirPlay targets, but that nothing remotely like the Sonos speaker running Siri the way a HomePod does. If you say “Hey Siri, play (song) on Sonos”, it’s the HomePod (or iPhone or some other Apple device) hearing that command, and then actively streaming the song to the Sonos speaker over AirPlay2. That’s hardly the Sonos speaker having “Siri functionality” in the way most people would interpret that phrase.
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Meh. “Siri” isn’t exactly a selling feature that gets people excited when it’s extremely limited and just outright dumb in many instances compared to the competition.

so if the selling point is “oh this mini speaker has great sound quality! I mean you could get better with the competition or even a cheap sound bar. But also, it has Siri. Which is also worse than the competition”. Rough sell

Apple should have done enough market research to see that the smart speaker market is harder to justify than say AirPods or iPhone. And to do it well, they really need to throw the kitchen sink at it. But they didn’t. They kept it ridiculously simple
 
Unregistered 4U said:
Improving Siri does not make the product any cheaper. It also especially does not make the product free. As long as the competition is “cheaper” and/or “free”, there’s no amount of improving Siri that will help.
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I'm just pointing out that having the product work should be step 1. Siri is close to worthless, but you can bypass her on the phone and watch. On the HomePod you are stuck using her, and it makes using the HomePod a miserable experience. Can't even move on to sound quality, price, or anything else.
 
Unregistered 4U said:
Next to nothing and nothing are two different things. Do you think that Apple would have ADDED those components while at the same time dropping the cost? No, $299 was the price they decided on and, to a populace that’s able to get competing devices for free (or 2 for 1) or $49, cost was absolutely THE factor. No matter how good Siri gets, if it’s competing against FREE, it’s not going to win.
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I have a $20 xiaomi bluetooth speaker that has aux in. They could have easily added it at the price. It was a strategy choice, not a budget choice.
About the price: i find it sad that there is such a race towards the lowest denominator. The Homepod wasn’t even good compared to proper hifi, but it is a huge step up the dirt cheap speakers. What is wrong with paying a little more for good sound. Current young generation often has worse sounding hifi than their parents.
 
Ghost31 said:
Meh. “Siri” isn’t exactly a selling feature that gets people excited when it’s extremely limited and just outright dumb in many instances compared to the competition.
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Right, but you were the one claiming that there were sound bars with Siri, not me. I was simply questioning that assertion.

I have a Sonos Arc, which I’m quite happy with, for what it is. If it had actual first-class Siri support, so I could use Siri to tell the Arc what to play and to adjust settings (as opposed to telling Siri on some other device to stream music to the Arc), it’d be even better. Yes, Alexa and Google Home do better at conversation than Siri - the difference is, I’m willing to let Siri listen to my living room 24/7, where I wouldn’t be comfortable letting either Amazon or Google have a live microphone in my home. And I know there are a lot of other people who feel the same way.

There was a point where I considered getting a pair of HomePods to do something along the lines of home theater, plus music listening in the living room. There was potential there, but Apple kept screwing around and not actually taking the next step. I ended up going with Sonos, and by the time Apple offered the HomePod/ATV support, it was too little, too late. I’d still like to see a proper on-board Siri client for Sonos speakers, but I don’t think that’ll ever come to pass, at this point.
 
CarlJ said:
Right, but you were the one claiming that there were sound bars with Siri, not me. I was simply questioning that assertion.

I have a Sonos Arc, which I’m quite happy with, for what it is. If it had actual first-class Siri support, so I could use Siri to tell the Arc what to play and to adjust settings (as opposed to telling Siri on some other device to stream music to the Arc), it’d be even better. Yes, Alexa and Google Home do better at conversation than Siri - the difference is, I’m willing to let Siri listen to my living room 24/7, where I wouldn’t be comfortable letting either Amazon or Google have a live microphone in my home. And I know there are a lot of other people who feel the same way.

There was a point where I considered getting a pair of HomePods to do something along the lines of home theater, plus music listening in the living room. There was potential there, but Apple kept screwing around and not actually taking the next step. I ended up going with Sonos, and by the time Apple offered the HomePod/ATV support, it was too little, too late. I’d still like to see a proper on-board Siri client for Sonos speakers, but I don’t think that’ll ever come to pass, at this point.
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apple is going to allow third party devices to use similar so hopefully soon I can use it on my arc as well
 
vipergts2207 said:
I think that you've got it a bit backwards. People that care about sound quality weren't interested. I have no doubt the HomePod sounded good for what it was, but it doesn't compare to the sound systems of people who are concerned about audio quality. The price of a pair of stereo HomePods is about the price of someone's low to mid-tier A/V receiver alone, never mind the potential thousands on speakers. Where would a HomePod fit in for someone with a 5.2.4 Atmos setup in the living room? The bedroom or kitchen I guess? But for many people that's a lot of money for a speaker that will be used so infrequently. And personally, I've already got a set of bookshelves connected to the TV in the bedroom.

Unfortunately based on its discontinuation, the HomePod didn't have much of a market. Too expensive for the average Joe who just wants a speaker and not good enough for folks with audio systems costing thousands of dollars. There was a distinct lack of versatility as well. No Bluetooth compatibility and no way to input audio from other sources like gaming consoles and cable boxes. Personally I'd like to see Apple come out with a HomePod mini with a rechargeable battery in it.


Considering that the ATV is $180 and the HomePod was $300, I think it's extremely unlikely to think such a device would sell for $250. Try double that. At least.
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yeah, they could call it like the homeport air or something like that and it would mean you would get great sound on the go
 
CarlJ said:
Some Sonos speakers have the capability to be known to HomeKit as AirPlay targets, but that nothing remotely like the Sonos speaker running Siri the way a HomePod does. If you say “Hey Siri, play (song) on Sonos”, it’s the HomePod (or iPhone or some other Apple device) hearing that command, and then actively streaming the song to the Sonos speaker over AirPlay2. That’s hardly the Sonos speaker having “Siri functionality” in the way most people would interpret that phrase.
Click to expand...
Meh. “Siri” isn’t exactly a selling feature that gets people excited when it’s extremely limited and just outright dumb in many instances compared to the competition.

so if the selling point is “oh this mini speaker has great sound quality! I mean you could get better with the competition or even a cheap sound bar. But also, it has Siri. Which is also worse than the competition”. Rough sell

Apple should have done enough market research to see that the smart speaker market is harder to justify than say AirPods or iPhone. And to do it well, they really need to throw the kitchen sink at it. But they didn’t. They kept it reo
CarlJ said:
Right, but you were the one claiming that there were sound bars with Siri, not me. I was simply questioning that assertion.

I have a Sonos Arc, which I’m quite happy with, for what it is. If it had actual first-class Siri support, so I could use Siri to tell the Arc what to play and to adjust settings (as opposed to telling Siri on some other device to stream music to the Arc), it’d be even better. Yes, Alexa and Google Home do better at conversation than Siri - the difference is, I’m willing to let Siri listen to my living room 24/7, where I wouldn’t be comfortable letting either Amazon or Google have a live microphone in my home. And I know there are a lot of other people who feel the same way.

There was a point where I considered getting a pair of HomePods to do something along the lines of home theater, plus music listening in the living room. There was potential there, but Apple kept screwing around and not actually taking the next step. I ended up going with Sonos, and by the time Apple offered the HomePod/ATV support, it was too little, too late. I’d still like to see a proper on-board Siri client for Sonos speakers, but I don’t think that’ll ever come to pass, at this point.
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my problem is Apple didn’t take HomePod as a product seriously. I mean damn. They discontinued the better sounding HomePod so now all you get is a mini speaker with limited functionality and I have zero faith it’ll even be around in a couple years

not just that, but choosing Apple for “privacy” is a little far fetched when they’re looking for hashes in your photo library and complying with tons of warrants from law enforcement. Even in situations they don’t have to. In Edward Snowden’s book “nowhere to hide” he detailed just how far Apple goes and it’s not aligned with their public image of “the privacy focused company”
 
rjp1 said:
I'm just pointing out that having the product work should be step 1. Siri is close to worthless, but you can bypass her on the phone and watch. On the HomePod you are stuck using her, and it makes using the HomePod a miserable experience. Can't even move on to sound quality, price, or anything else.
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It should. It’s just, in this case, even making those improvements such that it ends up being a wondrous experience for some folks still wouldn’t help a $299 device sell well in a world of cheap/free devices.
 
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