Apple Cuts HomePod Orders After Sales Prove to Be Lackluster

[Glockworkorange]

Lol not even then. I heard from an a certain "honest" tech reviewer (and Apple fan) on Youtube that the volume doesn't get high enough, and there's too much bass, overpowers the rest of the sounds. And no equalizer? Lol...

When will Apple understand not everyone is a fan of rap or R&B music? (Or high bass)

This. The way Apple pushes Hip Hop and R&B is obnoxious.

 

[steve62388]

Hmm strange. Everyone I know has a HomePod. I’ve must have purchased about 40 of them as gifts as well. I own 3 of them because the sound quality is crazy good. I love taking FaceTime audio calls on it as well.

‘Oooo. Look at me everybody. Look at me. I’m over here. I’m rich’. You must be new money.

Not your intention? Well that’s how it comes across.

 

[Trian]

We'll keep seeing bad HomePod sales while Tim refuses to play nice with other ecosystems. The HomePod is a damn HOME device. It needs to talk to other ecosystems. Likewise for the Apple TV. I can't force everybody in the house to have iPhones and iPads. THIS IS SIMPLY *NOT* GOING TO HAPPEN. In fact I'm actively looking to get the f out of iOS after 9 years and leave Tim with his €1400 iPhones (256GB iPhone X, Jeez!!!)

• I'm equally annoyed that I can't use my iPhone's NFC chip for stuff other than Tim's Apple Pay
• I'm just as annoyed because I can't send a file to another device using bluetooth
• Music. iTunes decides by itself what music to import and what not. I have to compare playlist sizes to make sure everything has been imported

Luckily, car manufacturers saw the light and managed to force him to accept Android Auto in their car systems as well.
If Tim had had it his way, we'd be buying iOS-only compatible cars right now.

 

[Soccertess]

You’re both saying they should buy from Google now and that they will make better sounding hardware in the future.

Yup. I think the features on google home and amazon echo are so superior, that it outways the benefits of sound quality (for me). And if those who think that top audiophile sound is critical, their are so many alternatives (get a good speaker and the HD audio to go along with it) that Apple pod isn’t worth getting. And if you need a smart speaker with top notch sound, soon others will have.

I think this product is a huge miss, because Apple executives aren’t in touch with reality again. Just like their Siri, 10k Apple watch, and dongles.

 

[The Game 161]

Sound quality on HomePod is great for me personally. Siri needs work though and hopefully iOS 12 we will see improvements and beyond.

 

[ZipZap]

Its a great sounding device with a stupid implementation. Hell, I can't even make a call from it. What a waste. If Apple opened it up, sales would return.

 

[Pez555]

iPhone X sales slow down = too expensive

HomePod = too expensive

Apple are you starting to realise?

 

[Michael Goff]

Yup. I think the features on google home and amazon echo are so superior, that it outways the benefits of sound quality (for me). And if those who think that top audiophile sound is critical, their are so many alternatives (get a good speaker and the HD audio to go along with it) that Apple pod isn’t worth getting. And if you need a smart speaker with top notch sound, soon others will have.

I think this product is a huge miss, because Apple executives aren’t in touch with reality again. Just like their Siri, 10k Apple watch, and dongles.

Except there are people, a lot of them, that use Apple Music and want a smart speaker that can play that. If you have AM and want to use voice to play it then you’re getting a HomePod.

 

[Guy Clark]

Instead of all those wasted resources on the HomePod. Resources which could have been used to develop a revised Mac mini.

Apple have lost focus and are utterly out of sync with what the consumer wants from them.

 

[OtherJesus]

Reading lots of people returned their HomePod.

If anyone does get one, please keep in mind, speakers can take up to 40 hours to “break in” and sound their best. Plus your ears need time to adjust to them in YOUR environment.

Keep that in mind for any quality speaker(s), not just a HomePod.

 

[Sevendaymelee]

Reading lots of people returned their HomePod.

If anyone does get one, please keep in mind, speakers can take up to 40 hours to “break in” and sound their best. Plus your ears need time to adjust to them in YOUR environment.

Keep that in mind for any quality speaker(s), not just a HomePod.

No amount of breaking in will allow these things to give true, separated stereo sound.

 

[TiggrToo]

Is their data supplied by Apple? No it is not not so no it is not factual.



If they are not from Apple they are not facts. Tell me, do th we comanies get the sales figures from every single outlet for one Aplle product globally and then report them? I doubt they do. Ergo they are not facts and cannot be used to make claims that Apple this or that are the best selling globally.

Where did I claim they WERE from Apple? I took issue with YOU calling these 'Apple Spin' when the data was sourced from a third party company.

And define 'factual'. Every other analyst has felt that the IDC figures are damn close to actual - odd that you apparently feel you know more than companies that invest millions of dollars on such results - why is that?

 

[patent10021]

Friends can play music from their devices via the owner's HomePod right? When your friends come over, HomePod recognizes a new device and asks the owner if they'd like to give permission to the guest's device (like is done with WiFi)?

What are these Airplay 2 limitations people are talking about? I know one of them is that it won't stream Spotify music. If I buy 3 HomePods can I link them? I believe not yet right?

 

[Zwhaler]

To be fair, Apple crippled the device to force users into the walled garden. No standard bluetooth for regular devices, only Apple Music for streaming, no headphone jack, Siri (!), the list goes on. I would actually consider buying one, except for it being completely useless to me.

 

[Michael Goff]

Instead of all those wasted resources on the HomePod. Resources which could have been used to develop a revised Mac mini.

Apple have lost focus and are utterly out of sync with what the consumer wants from them.

I agree. We should put the audio focused team on the Mac Mini. I’m sure that would have ensured that the Mac Mini was both released and good.
[doublepost=1523581806][/doublepost]

To be fair, Apple crippled the device to force users into the walled garden. No standard bluetooth for regular devices, only Apple Music for streaming, no headphone jack, Siri (!), the list goes on. I would actually consider buying one, except for it being completely useless to me.

It also doesn’t help that BT is bad for movies.

 

[ErikGrim]

What? The google home max is more expensive?

And worse sounding
[doublepost=1523582238][/doublepost]

The HomePod encapsulates everything wrong with Apple in one product.

Overpriced.
Released late.
Missing half the features the competition has for less money.

Just like the iPod and the iPhone huh?
[doublepost=1523582306][/doublepost]

1. Has to be plugged in
2. No third party apps shuch as spotify and audible.
3. Siri
4. Priced way over the competition

No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.
[doublepost=1523582429][/doublepost]

‘Oooo. Look at me everybody. Look at me. I’m over here. I’m rich’. You must be new money.

Not your intention? Well that’s how it comes across.

Love that people are still getting trolled by this even after it was revealed as a joke. A+

 

[DevNull0]

I have full house of IoT and I can control everything with HK, and doing even more with it now I have a HomePod. I use Hue, August, Nanoleaf, Schlage, Ecobee, Arlo, Canary, Wemo, Lyric, and Lutron. HomePod is so much faster then the Echo at running command, it freaky how fast it is sometime..

You can control whatever Apple allows you to and then only functionality that they choose to give you. You're also reliant on clouds from several different companies.

I have custom devices built around a mix of Particle Photons and ESP8266 modules. It's all supported by IFTTT which makes Alexa and Google voice control trivial. The best I could do with Apple is have Siri send a text message and then have to parse it into a command. That's clunky at the siri end and a kludge at the receiver.

 

[ErikGrim]

You can control whatever Apple allows you to and then only functionality that they choose to give you. You're also reliant on clouds from several different companies.

I have custom devices built around a mix of Particle Photons and ESP8266 modules. It's all supported by IFTTT which makes Alexa and Google voice control trivial. The best I could do with Apple is have Siri send a text message and then have to parse it into a command. That's clunky at the siri end and a kludge at the receiver.

No, the best you could do is set up Homebridge. It's trivial.

https://github.com/krvarma/homebridge-particle
http://www.instructables.com/id/HomeKit-Enabled-Arduino-ESP8266-Self-Powered-110v-/

 

[cardfan]

Integration with its own products is poor. This is why it sucks. Siri is never going to be great in comparison with google. It doesn’t have to if Apple can nail integration and software but not happening here.

Airplay is ancient. From what I’ve seen of AirPlay 2 in betas, it remains garbage. Apple has a chance to be innovative here but I have zero confidence.

 

[hobocamp456]

Let me use Spotify natively on it, be controlled by Siri, and I'll buy one again. I bought one, used Apple Music for a short bit and remembered how terrible it is, returned it and cancelled my Apple Music.

 

[1000]

That price. People really are starting to wake up to the whole pricing strategy behind these "1st gen" Apple products, and indeed many others.

 

[chatin]

Apple’s crappy software is really starting to catch-up with them.

Wonder when Tim will wake up..This is his greatest failing as CEO.

He needs to start really using the products. Throw a few pods off a third level balcony for dramatic effect. Motivate the troops into making something revolutionary.

 

[DevNull0]

No, the best you could do is set up Homebridge. It's trivial.

https://github.com/krvarma/homebridge-particle
http://www.instructables.com/id/HomeKit-Enabled-Arduino-ESP8266-Self-Powered-110v-/

From your instructables link:

Here's how!

First, you must install HomeBridge on a Raspberry Pi, and configure it as a HomeKit bridge device. Instructions below.

Yep, using a 1GHz quad core computer with its own internet connection to act as a bridge to my tiny 8-bit microcontroller. Brilliant. That's the apple way, right? In the intractable, to make a simple switch, you need an entire raspberry PI.

It's an idiotic idea that's an even worse kludge than my suggestion of using a text message. Alexa and Google assistant can control the ESP8266 and Photon without any additional hardware. And all because Apple doesn't want to allow to you use their system in any way that's not directly profitable for them.

 

[Abazigal]

Seeing the vitriol here, I am reminded of the following article.

AirPods and the Three Stages of Apple Criticism

https://medium.com/rethink-reviews/airpods-and-the-three-stages-of-apple-criticism-fed70b84e435

It will be interesting to check back here next year to see if the narrative has changed. And I believe it will.

 

[wozmatic]

I'm not saying you are wrong, but many of your examples are just not all that valid in 2018 in my honest opinion. For me, Apple's biggest problem has become software and quality assurance.

You don't really need to carry a dongle in most situations;


- iPhone - No headphone-jack
How big of a deal is this really? Transition over to some decent Bluetooth headphones or ear-buds and you will have a great experience. If you want to use cable you could simply attach the lightning to minijack adapter permanently to your headphone-cable. Sure you could argue for Apple giving you both Bluetooth and minijack, but then you wouldn't see the same adoption from manufactures manufacturing great Bluetooth headphones. Ever since Apple moved away from the minijack there has been tons of new wireless earbuds and headphones coming to market. The trend really started to shift with Apple's decision, without the drop of the minijack this would most likely have gone way slower.


- MacBook Pro - No USB
The lack of USB-A is not a huge problem. There is nothing the USB-A connection can do that a USB-C/Thunderbolt3 can't. This is once again Apple trying to kick-start the transition once again trying to force manufactures to give you options of having USB-C instead of USB-A on their products. Sadly this hasn't gone the same way as with wireless headphones. Apple doesn't have the same brute-force in the computer space as they have in the mobile space so the adoption rate of USB-C has been slow even after Apple moving to strictly using USB-C/Thunderbolt3 and consumers tends to not replace their computers as often as they replace their mobile phones so it takes longer for the majority of people to move over to these new machines.

The idea behind going all USB-C makes perfect sense. USB-C over Thunderbolt3 is capable of doing EVERYTHING a regular USB3.1 over USB-A could do, everything DVI-D, VGA, HDMI1.4, DisplayPort, Firewire, Optical audio, Ethernet etc was able to do. The major problem and drawback as of now is how the majority of accessories still don't give you a option giving you USB-C instead of USB-A. So you end up in a situation where you need to grab a adapter, or to make sure you have USB-C to USB-A/B cables.


- iPhone X - No Home Button or Touch ID
How is this a problem? Having no Home Button just goes to show how people gets stuck with old habits. How is swipe from the button any worse than having the home button? Its just two different ways to achieve the same goal?

The lack of Touch ID isn't all that bad either as Face ID works as great as it does. But there are situations where Touch ID is faster, easier and more ideal but those situations are a few and far between.


- HomePod - No Inputs
What inputs do you need? Sure it would be nice with Ethernet when put in places where you have cables ready already. Sure it would be nice to have optical input so you could hook it up to your TV but it doesn't seem like its meant, designed or optimised for TV-playback.

Sonos are crazy popular and I have a bunch of Sonos speakers myself and its only the Play Sub / Bar and the Sonos Play 5 that features any inputs. All the rest are inputless besides Ethernet and no one is complaining. What would I need or use the inputs for when I can just tell the speaker to play me something, or just use AirPlay from any of my devices? The major drawback with the HomePod is how locked-down it is so unless you Apple Music for direct playback, or a Apple device for using AirPlay you are pretty much out of luck if you don't want to use some kind of third-party hacks. But that doesn't have anything to do with lack of inputs.



My biggest gripe with Apple lately is all related to software. iOS 10 and 11 has been rough in terms of stability and quality. There are minor hiccups all over the place and its annoying. Apple is also really slow on improving their own first-party applications like Apple Podcasts etc.. Why don't we have any Smart Speed in the podcast-app for instance? How come Apple keep announcing new products and features that is never delivered on time? Just look at the HomePod, not AirPlay 2, no Stereo-pairing, no Multi-room etc available at launch and still no mention of when it will be available two months after release? No AirPlay 2 on iOS or tvOS, no iMessage in the Cloud etc.. All this while there are still small quirks and bugs in iOS. Apple Music on iOS still drains a ton of battery, 3D Touch is still wonky within the app and whatnot.

Yeah also consider everyone is not you, and there are infinite situations where dongles/adapters are needed. It's just not practical.

Not everyone has bluetooth speakers (or wants them). Millions of people have good receivers with no bluetooth connection.

Also, airplay is crap with other apps. I don't use apple music and when I stream audio to my apple tv 3 it often cuts out. My network is fine, The apple tv is trash and just collects dust.

Which is something I forgot in my previous comment, Apple tv is brutal, walled garden crap. Never again will I ever buy one.

Macbooks, people still use type A usb's. At a meeting? Need to copy a file? Share a file with a friend, etc. etc. etc. Cool, how many people still use the regular usb thumb drives? A LOT.

Homepod, it's a speaker it should have an aux input and even an ethernet. Plenty of situations when this would benefit a user.

Home button, personal taste I guess so we're both neither right or wrong. But there are more situations where having to scan your face is annoying when your thumb can do the job.