Sorry but the price is terrible but they could likely sell it anyway IF Siri didn't suck so terribly badly. There are a billion iOS devices out there, most have Siri, everyone knows Siri sucks so its no secret that Siri on the HomePod sucks too. Apple is dropping the ball with Siri and with Homekit and those are the two main things that would make the HomePod great
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Apple Cuts HomePod Orders After Sales Prove to Be Lackluster
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Well, you're trying to give too much credit. You seemed to forget about the rest of the statement:"Three weeks after the launch, weekly HomePod sales slipped to about 4 percent of the smart speaker category on average, the market research firm says." So basically early adopters and the faithful jumped on the HomePod during the first two weeks. By the third and subsequent weeks, the HP sales stagnated.
I'm guessing the right amount of credit was given.
Bad car analogy is bad. Apple doesn't compare to Ferrari and the HomePod doesn't compare to a Ferrari. If any smartphone company compares to Ferrari it's Samsung. You know, since both their products have a propensity for immolation.
Even Sammy doesn't compare, but they make a convenient joke. So there's that.Ferrari is a boutique high end auto maker. Apple makes commodity electronics.
I'd wager no company would agree with this. No one want's excess inventory. It's wasteful on multiple levels. There's no way in heck Apple wants to see HP inventory on a clearance rack at the back of Walmart.
lack of Spotify ALONE I don't think is the answer. The real issues I think are:
1. It sounds really nice but it doesn't get super loud like its competitors and it costs $350
2. Siri is not bad but its horrible and it costs $350.
3. You can't pair two home pods together. And it costs $350
4. You can't pair it to Apple TV right now. and it costs $350
5. It only plays Apple Music which wouldn't be so bad if it solved all of its other problems. But it still costs $350 with stupid Siri.
6.You have a speaker company who knows what they are doing in SONOS selling comparable speakers for the price of one HomePod and also will have both Alexa and Google Assistant on it. And it does not cost $350
No way do I choose Siri on a lackluster HomePod over Alexa AND Google Assistant on a SONOS speaker!! Right now Apple appears to be operating on the "We're Apple. Hopefully everyone loves our stuff and is stupid enough to buy our products" mantra. Thats cool and all, but you gotta start putting out again if you want to hold onto loyal customers in new arenas like smart speakers. They rushed this product plain and simple. Or you can say the speaker actually came out late to the game and it still isn't ready. From the outside looking in, Apple just doesn't know what to do in this space yet and its mainly because they haven't figured out how to make Siri better yet. Siri could actually be their downfall. Thats crazy to think that we have come so far that AI is actually here and if you you are not up to par, you will hung out to dry.
You know, it’s funny. I didn’t really think too much about a screen until that story came out about Phil Schiller saying something along the lines of smart speakers and their utility without a screen. Then I did start thinking about it and realized how nice that would be to have things like time, weather, appointments, stocks at a glance on the kitchen counter. Then Apple released this with no such features and I determined this must not be the product for me.
Does it sound better than the Apple Hi-Fi?
Funny note: the price of an Apple Hi-Fi on eBay ranges from $70 to $900 (NiB).
Funny note: the price of an Apple Hi-Fi on eBay ranges from $70 to $900 (NiB).
Agreed, I really wanted to use it as a soundbar but manually reconnecting it all the time suuuucks, and the absolutely abysmal 5 second audio delay that makes it completely useless for games or apps - it's pretty irritating since the media player I use has navigation clicks. Pausing delays and starting playback delays are also pretty annoying. I don't get any audio dropouts though - I did when I was using 2.4ghz but not on 5ghz.
It also is clearly mono as a soundbar and sounds worse than my TV speakers.
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The HomePod has never been targeted at audiophiles. That's not an audience Apple wants nor has tried to appeal to here. You don't get rich going after a small niche like that. Just like the iPhone, iPad, and iPod, it's all about the largest percentage of the general consumer market for Apple and that's exactly who the HomePod targets. Getting the general buyer to go for a higher-end option over the competitors by turning them on to the advantages of the higher priced option.
Perfect example of Apple thinking they can sell a new product with the Apple tax applied, especially when it still can't match Alexa/Google Assistant in features. Why would I want to spend 3 times as much as an Echo, or $100 more than a Sonos One? Nice speaker though, but certainly not worth $349. Drop it to $200 and we'll talk.
Has a few things working against it.
1. Costs $100 more than it should.
2. Siri is terrible compared to Alexa and Googles Assistant.
3. It arrived without all its software like stereo mode.
4. Only works with Apple Music natively, not spotify, tidal, amazon music etc
All of this combined makes for a very lacklustre speaker.
1. Costs $100 more than it should.
2. Siri is terrible compared to Alexa and Googles Assistant.
3. It arrived without all its software like stereo mode.
4. Only works with Apple Music natively, not spotify, tidal, amazon music etc
All of this combined makes for a very lacklustre speaker.
Totally agree. Most of the fanboys simply have not used both, Siri is bashed because it doesn't work well. Alexa is just vastly better.
The lack of pairing is ridiculous. They are already discounting them to $329 at Costco, btw.
Apple is too conservative and needs to iterate very quickly and take some big risks or Amazon will become entrenched too much to budge (if they aren't already).
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HomePod: Only speaker they sell and 350$
Google and Amazon: One step removes from giving away Dot/Mini in Cracker Jack boxes.
I wonder why the market share is low.
Google and Amazon: One step removes from giving away Dot/Mini in Cracker Jack boxes.
I wonder why the market share is low.
Apple does well when they produce something balls-to-the-wall better than anyone else. This worked for computers, MP3 players, phones. When others catch up (or surpass), or when they try to compete with basically the same thing just "Apple", it usually doesn't do so hot.
This philosophy has worked in the past and kinda sorta still works with the iPhone. It’s changing very quickly though. They need to be more competitive with pricing and introduce more features rather than iterate them like they do now. Writing is on the wall.
And why did they skip Xmas?.. They would have sold what they needed. I guess they paid the price for "not being ready"
Called it—and this is coming from a big Apple fan who owns nearly everything they sell and laughs when people say new Apple products are going to fail. I still don’t know if it’s a failure but I definitely thought it wasn’t ready and likely wouldn’t sell very well. The fact is most people don’t care about really high end audio. Like <5% of people are audiophiles. Just look at all the crap $15 Bluetooth speakers that people buy. I’m somewhere in the middle on audio quality, and I think that’s where their target should be. Most people recognize when something sounds better but only to a certain point. Make something good enough for 90% of people that costs $150. And make Siri actually work fully and for multiple people. They just shoehorned Siri onto this device without considering the design of Siri. That’s the most troubling thing to me: Apple actually thought this thing was ready. That’s a scary thought. Software is what is holding them back lately, which is pretty sad because that used to be their bread and butter.
If it's off to such a great start, why are Apple apparently looking at cutting orders? And how much of this '10%' is still accurate?
Another bungled product launch under Timmy
Still waiting for voice recognition for multiple users and a more intelligent personal assistant. I might be waiting a while...
A real shame Xmas holiday sales wee missed...
Still, $2.4B billion in Homepod sales for the first year (assuming the story/analysis/projection is true - but everyone here is basing their posts on a rumor, so why not) isn't bad. Increasing to $3.8 billion for 2019. Kind of smells like first year sales for the iPhone and Watch.
Still, $2.4B billion in Homepod sales for the first year (assuming the story/analysis/projection is true - but everyone here is basing their posts on a rumor, so why not) isn't bad. Increasing to $3.8 billion for 2019. Kind of smells like first year sales for the iPhone and Watch.
Make it a wifi mesh/basestation component while they are at it.
Release it in Canada and other countries already and you might see your sales increase!
Apple's HomePod hasn't ended up selling as well as the company was hoping, leading it to cut orders with suppliers, reports Bloomberg.
In late March, nearly two month after the HomePod first became available for purchase, Apple reportedly lowered its sales forecasts and dropped some orders with Inventec, the company responsible for manufacturing the HomePod. HomePod inventory in retail locations is said to be "piling up" with some stores selling "fewer than 10 HomePods a day."
Early analyst estimates based on strong pre-orders and initial sales figures suggested the HomePod would sell well and capture a solid portion of the smart speaker market, but Apple hasn't managed to maintain sales momentum.Apple charges $349 for the HomePod, making the device more expensive than competing smart speakers from Amazon and other companies. Apple put a lot of effort into promoting the HomePod's superior sound quality, but its high price tag and its inability to work natively with music services other than Apple Music have likely hurt its sales.
As Bloomberg points out, the HomePod's February launch was delayed from an initial promised December launch, causing Apple to miss out on key holiday sales.
HomePod also continues to lack promised features like stereo pairing to pair two HomePods together and AirPlay 2 support for controlling the music on multiple HomePods located in different rooms of the house. There are hints of this functionality in iOS 11.4, so these options could be coming soon, but HomePod owners and prospective buyers are likely disappointed with the months-long wait for basic features.
Apple isn't likely planning to give up on the HomePod despite its lackluster sales because it's part of an audio accessory lineup that includes the AirPods and the upcoming rumored high-end over-ear headphones.
Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster in February said he expects sales to pick up later in the year. He predicts Apple will sell a total of 7 million HomePods in 2018, with that number set to grow to 10.9 million in 2019.
Article Link: Apple Cuts HomePod Orders After Sales Prove to Be Lackluster
So another sales failure for Cooks Apple. And hardly surprising considering Siri is in it.
He made it up. Homepod doesn't even register 1%.
https://us.kantar.com/business/bran...gle-smart-speaker-gold-rush-is-just-starting/
Makes sense that people are adding smart capability to their existing dumb speakers by adding Amazon Echo Dot. They're not going to replace their better sounding speakers with even dumber little Homepod speaker without 3.5mm jack nor stereo capability.
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I’d like to buy a second and run them in stereo but until the software for it ships I’m not buying the second one.