Apple Cuts HomePod Orders After Sales Prove to Be Lackluster

[Baymowe335]

Apple is late to the game. Amazon and Google will continue to own this market with superior software even if the hardware is subpar. Not surprising at all.

Ever notice Apple'a share in worldwide mobile OS? Ever notice their profit? You think Apple sells hardware at a loss to be a market leader? Haha

Btw, there is no "proof" Apple cut orders at all or if any cut was already planned. The supply chain "checks" for Apple are consistently wrong.

 

[harriska2]

Ill stay with my Bose SoundLink Mini for the time being. Its portable, has decent sound and I can play anything I want to on it. The HomePod is just too expensive for my needs.

Yep, got our Bose Soundlink mini a couple years ago for $130 and all of our Apple products connect to it just fine and the sound is OK. It is tiny and portable with a battery only option.

 

[Arran]

Yep, got our Bose Soundlink mini a couple years ago for $130 and all of our Apple products connect to it just fine and the sound is OK. It is tiny and portable with a battery only option.

$130 is a great deal.

I’ve had one for several years. Only Bose product I’ve bought. Paid $200, but right from the start I felt it was worth the money.

Best trade-off of: price, size, sound, volume, bass, reliable connectivity, portability,quality construction, durability, etc. It’s probably the best all-round speaker I’ve owned. Hard to beat, all things considered.

 

[harriska2]

And when you add into the Mix that NOT a single Board member has any Electrical Engineering OR Software Development experience, and you end-up with what you end-up ... lots of Emojis, dropping of the ALL-important Hardware Home Button, going-cheap with the amount of DRAM, but expecting Devs to bail you out, etc., etc. ... the list actually goes on, & on, Macs with Touch Bars, to this high-priced HomePod.

As an iphone se and ipad 12.9 owner, I’d love to get rid of the home button for more screen/smaller device.

 

[Jupeman]

I have two HomePods. I like them and want Airplay 2 and greater flexibility playing same content to all if I brought more into one location or stereo. I have found it annoyingly hard to move a speaker from one wifi network to another. I thought that was supposed to be seamless, too. This seems so basic and points to Apple's rather pathetic investment in software development. I cannot comprehend that this speaker has allegedly been in development for years and these features aren't available yet. Siri is not good, as we all know. I am hopeful for advancement, but Apple is just too slow to innovate and improve. They have become the sloth behemoth and it is pathetic for a company with so many resources. Tim should stop making political statements and worrying about anything but making better products. All this to say, I'm posting this because I do like my HomePods!

 

[harriska2]

To these day, still not convinced smart watch is success. Apple Watch might selling well because the integration to Apple’s ecosystem. However, smart watch market is still not big enough. I have seen few people with Apple Watch, but I have yet seen Apple Watch in scales comparable with iPhone or even iPad. I still believe smart watch market is going to tank and I do not how it can rebunce.

Last month my son celebrated his 22nd birthday. I was surprised that of the 15 family and friends at the house, 4 of us had apple watches. I also noticed at my dentist office that with the 3 hygenist, 1 office person, and the young denist, 2 were wearing the watch including the dentist. I taught the dentist how to use siri to set his timer on the watch for whatever dentist stuff he does. Made his day. Go figure.

Yeah they are out there but they don’t stick out because the screen isn’t usually on so you practically have to look for them to see them. Not saying they are popular or a great thing. Just my 2 cents.

My son needs one badly as he has autism and ignores his phone reminders because the phone isn’t always with him and sound is always off. Watch takes care of both issues.

 

[Regime2008]

I actually haven’t seen any tests where the Google Home Max came out on top nor have I seen any real scientific blind tests... only a few amateur attempts like the one done by Twit that isn’t worth considering cos even a slight difference in volume will influence the listener.

What I do know for a fact is that Google Home Max distorts and can’t pick up voice commands as it approaches max volume, making it flawed out of the gate. I also know that audio quality will fall off dramatically if I stand next to or behind the Google Home Max, unlike HP.

Also, it’s big and bulky, lacks the design aesthetics and elegance of HP, and doesn’t deliver any new tech yet costs $50 more.

So when taking in all those factors, I still stand by my assertion that HomePod is the best value in speakers today.

If someone disagrees, I’m ok with that since sound quality is subjective.

Max can pick up commands at a much higher volume than the homepod can even achieve, AND without distortion. Big and bulky? The device is not that much bigger than a homepod. It's as if you have no clue about the Max at all. It gets louder, arguably better quality sound, plays stereo surround without having to purchase a 2nd one ($400 for stereo sound vs $700 homepod stereo). Plus Max comes with a year subscription included. Cheaper than a homepod and Apple Music subscription. Homepod is the worst in value of all the smart speakers, especially when you take into consideration the multitude of limitations it has.

 

[jacobj]

Completely agree. I bought one and I'm returning it. I wanted to use it almost exclusively as a "soundbar" for my Apple TV, in a room where I do not want any wires being run. It is a HORRIBLE soundbar. Airplay cuts out frequently (my wifi is flawless otherwise), airplay forgets to connect to the speaker, and the speaker does sound good but does not get nearly loud enough. For $350, no thanks.

I went with Sonos because AirPlay was so incredibly unreliable. I have never (not once in 3 years) had an issue with connectivity with my Sonos. Don’t get me wrong, there are many things I wish Sonos did more of, but what it does it does so well. I just don’t trust Apple to get this stuff right. So AirPlay was an option, but will never be again.

 

[harriska2]

No. Tim Cook is building more of an Apple ecosystem than Steve Jobs. He seems to want to make Apple the center of your life.

Old things? You mean like the best smart watch? Launching what was the best wireless headphone at the time that companies are just now overcoming? How about that FaceID with technology that nobody else is using? How about the fact that Apple is using specialized ARM silicon to augment Macs? How about going into movies and TV?

I agree with your statements but in the case of the watch and speakers, sometimes the second or third version is what the first should have been. Plus they often drop the price to something more reasonable down the road. So I’ll wait to see how things shake out on this one.

 

[madKIR]

Again.... groundbreaking. ::eye roll::
[doublepost=1523677663][/doublepost]
For real. Why would any idiot pay for a speaker that only plays audio that Apple approves ? I’m beginning to see why everyone calls Apple fans sheeps. (Me being an Apple fan and only use Apple
Products)

Some extremes here. You can play any music on it that you have on your iPhone. It doesn’t have to be Apple Music. I will never subscribe to this nonsense for millennials lol
I agree that being able to play sound from your console would be nice though!

 

[LovingTeddy]

Last month my son celebrated his 22nd birthday. I was surprised that of the 15 family and friends at the house, 4 of us had apple watches. I also noticed at my dentist office that with the 3 hygenist, 1 office person, and the young denist, 2 were wearing the watch including the dentist. I taught the dentist how to use siri to set his timer on the watch for whatever dentist stuff he does. Made his day. Go figure.

Yeah they are out there but they don’t stick out because the screen isn’t usually on so you practically have to look for them to see them. Not saying they are popular or a great thing. Just my 2 cents.

My son needs one badly as he has autism and ignores his phone reminders because the phone isn’t always with him and sound is always off. Watch takes care of both issues.

How many 15 people in your family have smart phone? I bet all of them. 4 out15 is not something so impressive. I am not denying people are buying smart watch. I just don’t see the widespread use of smart watch. I have not yet see wide adoption of smart watch at all.

 

[I7guy]

How many 15 people in your family have smart phone? I bet all of them. 4 out15 is not something so impressive. I am not denying people are buying smart watch. I just don’t see the widespread use of smart watch. I have not yet see wide adoption of smart watch at all.

Smart watches aren’t for everyone, just like homepod. My guess is Apple knows exactly what the market is, moreso than Mac rumors posters.

 

[LovingTeddy]

Smart watches aren’t for everyone, just like homepod. My guess is Apple knows exactly what the market is, moreso than Mac rumors posters.

I don’t think Apple has clear idea about what HomePod wanted to be. In one hand, it wanted to be a good seapker for audiophile. On other hand, Apple want HomePod he the digital hub for all digital homes. But it sucked as smart speaker part. So what is it? I also don’t think Apple know what market HomePod for. Speaker for audiophile? Seems to be a such niche market for audiophile, doesn’t sound what Apple would do. Smart Speaker? Seems HomePod suck at that perspective. HomePod probably is the most confusing product Apple ever created.

 

[Applemaniac7]

Coming in and grabbing 10% of the smart speaker market in just the first couple weeks, with a premium priced product is a big accomplishment. Not enough credit is being given here. Can you imagine if Ferrari came out with a car that captured 10% of the total market?

Sure, cos Ferraris are only 100 bucks more than a Ford.. lame comparison
..

 

[JediZenMaster]

Such an amazing and elegant product.

1) Stylish
2) Backed by a company that has actual company owned retail locations and not subcontracting out to third party.
3) Designed by a company that has a legacy 42 years almost 5 decades of computer and home electronic experiences
5) A true safe keeper when it comes to privacy.
6) Affordable and a good value

I see lots of folks upset about overall pricing of Apple products and maybe these folks are new users or maybe just old users WOKE to the game but Apple doesn’t compete on price.

No matter how many folks think they should they won’t. Amazon will sell a 3 pack of echos at a loss and take less margin.

Apple doesn’t need to and nor should they start a race to the bottom for margins. That’s an Amazon, dell and HP thing

 

[ipponrg]

I don’t think Apple has clear idea about what HomePod wanted to be. In one hand, it wanted to be a good seapker for audiophile. On other hand, Apple want HomePod he the digital hub for all digital homes. But it sucked as smart speaker part. So what is it? I also don’t think Apple know what market HomePod for. Speaker for audiophile? Seems to be a such niche market for audiophile, doesn’t sound what Apple would do. Smart Speaker? Seems HomePod suck at that perspective. HomePod probably is the most confusing product Apple ever created.

I agree 100%. From that perspective, it is rather confusing. I don't necessarily think it's the most confusing Apple product, but it definitely is up there.

From our perspective (i.e. Macrumors forums), it was marketed primarily as a Smart speaker. However, people on this forum continued to reiterate that it's primarily a speaker first and foremost with the "smart" capability as a secondary feature.

From the public perspective including numerous blogs (e.g. engadget, techcrunch, etc), they've always interpreted this as a smart speaker and have consistently compared it to Google/Alexa smart speaker equivalents. Many news outlets always wanted to convey the fidelity, but none of those articles would avoid addressing the smart capabilities of it.

From Apple's perspective, they've tried to market it as an innovated speaker with smart capabilities. I wouldn't necessarily say they've succeeded in marketing it as ancillary considering that one commercial with the dancing shows the woman using Siri to enable the HomePod to play. It almost seems as they really want the smart capabilities to be at the same level as the speaker itself.

 

[LovingTeddy]

Such an amazing and elegant product.

1) Stylish
2) Backed by a company that has actual company owned retail locations and not subcontracting out to third party.
3) Designed by a company that has a legacy 42 years almost 5 decades of computer and home electronic experiences
5) A true safe keeper when it comes to privacy.
6) Affordable and a good value

I see lots of folks upset about overall pricing of Apple products and maybe these folks are new users or maybe just old users WOKE to the game but Apple doesn’t compete on price.

No matter how many folks think they should they won’t. Amazon will sell a 3 pack of echos at a loss and take less margin.

Apple doesn’t need to and nor should they start a race to the bottom for margins. That’s an Amazon, dell and HP thing

Apple does compete on price. Look at entry level iPad and Apple Music subscription price.

You never will understand Amazon business model. Amazon will always be cheaper and take slim profitability on physical products, because they want you to use their service and they make profit from the services you use. This not necessarily translate to Amazon is invading your privacy.

Let’s look at the HomePod.

1) it is stylish. I will give you that. Only style doesn’t sell the product.
2) Retail store or not. This is not problem. I have serval Apple product that I brought outside of Apple store for cheaper price. And Apple,does subcontracting out to the third party. I don’t get why someone think third party automatically means lower quality services. Sometimes, first party services can be ****** as well,
3) This means nothing. Company can have all the experiences all they want, and product still ca be ****.
4) You have no proood that other products aren’t safe.
5) it is clearly not affordable. It is already hard to find justification on spending hundreds on speaker, not three amount of that. For the price you can find better sound speaker or you can buy bunch of better smart speaker.

There is reason HomePod does not sell well. It is half baked product at best.

 

[JediZenMaster]

Apple does compete on price. Look at entry level iPad and Apple Music subscription price.

You never will understand Amazon business model. Amazon will always be cheaper and take slim profitability on physical products, because they want you to use their service and they make profit from the services you use. This not necessarily translate to Amazon is invading your privacy.

Let’s look at the HomePod.

1) it is stylish. I will give you that. Only style doesn’t sell the product.
2) Retail store or not. This is not problem. I have serval Apple product that I brought outside of Apple store for cheaper price. And Apple,does subcontracting out to the third party. I don’t get why someone think third party automatically means lower quality services. Sometimes, first party services can be ****** as well,
3) This means nothing. Company can have all the experiences all they want, and product still ca be ****.
4) You have no proood that other products aren’t safe.
5) it is clearly not affordable. It is already hard to find justification on spending hundreds on speaker, not three amount of that. For the price you can find better sound speaker or you can buy bunch of better smart speaker.

There is reason HomePod does not sell well. It is half baked product at best.

It’s affordable for me and that’s all I care about and longevity means a lot.

 

[I7guy]

I don’t think Apple has clear idea about what HomePod wanted to be. In one hand, it wanted to be a good seapker for audiophile. On other hand, Apple want HomePod he the digital hub for all digital homes. But it sucked as smart speaker part. So what is it? I also don’t think Apple know what market HomePod for. Speaker for audiophile? Seems to be a such niche market for audiophile, doesn’t sound what Apple would do. Smart Speaker? Seems HomePod suck at that perspective. HomePod probably is the most confusing product Apple ever created.

Apple knows exactly what they are doing. And no one knows what apple’s expectations are, except for Apple. Everybody else is just voicing an opinion based on their perceptions or bias.

 

[Regime2008]

It’s affordable for me and that’s all I care about and longevity means a lot.

Longevity? No BT or Aux cuts down on longevity. Not to mention the limited playback and feature set (or lack there of). Check out Google or Amazon's update time-frame for their devices. They have literally added features in almost every month that add to the longevity and worth of the product. Apple has updated the homepod to do what exactly? Others than p*ss off many customers with a change of EQ algorithm? Another thing that can't be changed on the homepod, the EQ. How long do you think it will be before they release a version 2 with features that are exclusive to it. And I bet these same features, could be added via software update. Even less longevity.

 

[JediZenMaster]

Longevity? No BT or Aux cuts down on longevity. Not to mention the limited playback and feature set (or lack there of). Check out Google or Amazon's update time-frame for their devices. They have literally added features in almost every month that add to the longevity and worth of the product. Apple has updated the homepod to do what exactly? Others than p*ss off many customers with a change of EQ algorithm? Another thing that can't be changed on the homepod, the EQ. How long do you think it will be before they release a version 2 with features that are exclusive to it. And I bet these same features, could be added via software update. Even less longevity.

That’s your use case not mine and not others. I suggest that you stop trying to make folks want features that you want.

You don’t speak for me so back off.

 

[ErikGrim]

Every blind test I have seen the Max has better sound.

Do you have one where the HP has better sound?

"The real shock was the Google Home Max, a massive, 12-pound machine that’s supposed to be all about the sound; it sounded like cardboard compared with the HomePod and Sonos."​

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2018/02/05/david-pogue-homepod-vs-google-home-max/

Quinn Nelson‏Verified account @SnazzyQ
Replying to @rosterloh
Home Max certainly sounds worse than HomePod. Other than that, I agree.​

https://twitter.com/SnazzyQ/status/964197404730736640

We thought the HomePod sounded the best, with the Google Home Max at a close second, followed by the Sonos One.

The Google Home Max gets the loudest, but sound becomes somewhat distorted at the highest volumes, while the Sonos One offers robust sound that's not quite as good at a lower price point.
​

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/02/20/smart-speaker-showdown-homepod/

Overall, the HomePod and the Sonos One were the top two performers [in a shootout between HP, Sonos and G Max]. Listeners praised the HomePod's stronger and more robust bass, but it came at the expense of higher tones, such as vocals and high-pitched instruments, which sounded muddier, according to one person.​

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/smart-speaker-showdown,review-5156.html

Apple HomePod sounds the best
We’ve had a chance to extensively test dozens of speakers and the HomePod is in fact the best sounding smart speaker on the market today. It sounds incredible with very balanced, deep, rich audio. It handles high and low volumes very well.
​

https://www.rizknows.com/buyer-guides/apple-homepod-vs-sonos-one-vs-google-home-max/

I thought my mind and ears were playing tricks on me (or maybe it was the placebo effect), but then I compared the HomePod to other smart speakers (second-generation Echo, Google Home, Sonos One, Google Home Max) and it quickly became clear: HomePod really does sound outstanding.
​

https://mashable.com/2018/02/12/apple-homepod-review/#E2e8jp6nDkqx

HomePod vs. Google Home Max
When companies who don't build speakers get into the speaker business, it's natural to have a fair bit of skepticism. Both Apple and Google fall into this general definition, but if we're being honest — Apple has been building speaker systems for years in its laptop, desktop, and smartphone lines. Google… less so. And it shows.

The Google Home Max is an embarrassment of a speaker for its cost: In isolation, the Max sounds decent enough, but when put in a ring against the cheaper Sonos One and HomePod, it's obvious just how much compression it puts on vocal and mid-tone tracks in the interest of big, booming sound.

Nowhere was this more obvious than the last song I heard as part of the test, the Eagles' live version of Hotel California — the applause, guitar, reverb, and room tone all got squished. (It's especially telling that guitar picks and audience clapping had the exact same pitch, often blending into a single sound on the recording.) In contrast, both the HomePod and Sonos One delivered a rich, separated sound.
​

https://www.imore.com/homepod-vs-amazon-echo-vs-google-home-max-vs-sonos-one-speaker-showdown

 

[Regime2008]

That’s your use case not mine and not others. I suggest that you stop trying to make folks want features that you want.

You don’t speak for me so back off.

Not my use case scenario, nor am I trying to speak for you, cause I would rather not to be quite frank. I asked simple questions, as you mentioned it has longevity. No need to get sassy over simple questions. I suggest taking a break or a breather, sounds like you had a bad day.

 

[JediZenMaster]

Not my use case scenario, nor am I trying to speak for you, cause I would rather not to be quite frank. I asked simple questions, as you mentioned it has longevity. No need to get sassy over simple questions. I suggest taking a break or a breather, sounds like you had a bad day.

No one is getting sassy and I’m not going to speak with you about the issue anymore because I don’t mind being frank however I want to keep things peaceful.

So have a good night.

 

[eplchamps]

Not a surprise. Apple can’t just slap the Apple tax on a run of the mill smart speaker.