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Apple Cuts HomePod Orders After Sales Prove to Be Lackluster
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I have two Sonos Play:1 speakers acting as a stereo pair which cost me about $300 plus tax and I added a Sonos Sub, which was $700. It sounds outstanding in my opinion. I had an Amazon echo and quickly lost interest. Here's why I think the Sonos is a better way to go...
I have Siri already in my phone, tablet, and Mac. If I want to use Siri, I just use it. The speaker wouldn't give me anything Siri related that I don't already have.
The two Sonos Play:1 speakers acting as a stereo pair for just $300 would be very hard to beat. I have a tough time believing that a single HomePod is better sounding that two Play:1 speakers. Add the Sonos Sub and you have some series sound. And I can add more to this if I want. I can add two Play:5 speakers. I can add the Bar and use all of them in home theater.
Next, I can add my Audible.com account to my Sonos and play all my audio books. I can use Amazon Music, Apple Music, or any number of popular music services including Pandora and Spotify. I have my podcast app on Sonos as well. I can listen to my latest podcasts.
In other words, Sonos is highly mature. They have a range of speakers to choose from. You can make it as minimal or as awesome as you like. It's all up to you. I would have thought Apple would have bought Sonos. They are more Apple than Apple is in my opinion. They are the Apple of Speakers. One thing comes to mind when I think Sonos. AWESOME. They really get it.
I think Tim Cook has a vision, just not one people at MacRumors likes.
Bought two, opened one, returned both. I had thought that Apple might squash Sonos based on all of the media hype and strongly positive reviews surrounding the HomePod.
I could not believe how poorly executed the whole package was when comparing it to Alexa’s capabilities, or comparing the sound to Sonos. The one thing that Apple absolutely got right over everyone else, however, is Siri’s ability to pick up requests even when the HomePod is blasting music at it’s highest volume.
You can nearly bring your voice to a whisper, and Siri still is queued. Not worth much when Siri never properly handles your requests, on even the most basic of functions. Apparently “stop” and “pause” mean nothing in 2018, at least according to Siri. When I’d ask her to stop or pause, she would just turn the music back up.. like angsty teens ignoring their parents.
I carry the fear that the hype-train for anything Apple is so strong that Sonos loses its ability to stay afloat, despite offering far more flexibility (the whole line of speakers and their practical use-case around the home / having a choice of preferred assistant (google home/Alexa), and the general focus the company has on their true love and passion for quality modern sound solutions. I’d have no problem if the HomePod was an improvement upon Sonos’s offerings, but it is far from it. So, here we are. Hype-train.
I could not believe how poorly executed the whole package was when comparing it to Alexa’s capabilities, or comparing the sound to Sonos. The one thing that Apple absolutely got right over everyone else, however, is Siri’s ability to pick up requests even when the HomePod is blasting music at it’s highest volume.
You can nearly bring your voice to a whisper, and Siri still is queued. Not worth much when Siri never properly handles your requests, on even the most basic of functions. Apparently “stop” and “pause” mean nothing in 2018, at least according to Siri. When I’d ask her to stop or pause, she would just turn the music back up.. like angsty teens ignoring their parents.
I carry the fear that the hype-train for anything Apple is so strong that Sonos loses its ability to stay afloat, despite offering far more flexibility (the whole line of speakers and their practical use-case around the home / having a choice of preferred assistant (google home/Alexa), and the general focus the company has on their true love and passion for quality modern sound solutions. I’d have no problem if the HomePod was an improvement upon Sonos’s offerings, but it is far from it. So, here we are. Hype-train.
Yes. Take a trillion dollars out of people's wallets by doing old things well over and over.
I do not like that.
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?
It sounds great. Siri sucks. It’s too expensive. I’ve kept mine. I consider it a paid beta test.
Did you not read the whole article or you just being fan boy selective? How convenient you forgot to mention that its sales have dropped down to the ~4% market share after a few weeks. Everyone who wanted to be “first” got theirs. Now sales have slowed down and its market share is decreasing day by day and will likely settle around the 4% mark.
If anything this tells you really how small the smart speaker market really is.
I saw one in person and was quite surprised at it's size, thought it would be more Mac Pro trash can size.
I think a lot of people already have things in these markets. Like, I already have a home hifi. Since it's tethered by a power cable - it really competes in that space. If anyone has anything like the Homepod they probably have it battery powered so it can be portable and taken anywhere. I have a Beoplay P2 for this purpose and its great.
I think the HomePod aimed at the living room primarily, but then its difficult to own in that space if you don't already own an Apple TV.
I honestly don't think APple thought about this product enough. Sure the tech is nice, the design is ace in my opinion, but not providing any Aux or Digital ins is a failing I think, it fails to let the device integrate into whatever home theatre setup users might already have.
Heck, put a HDMI on the back and make it an Apple TV and HOmepod in one - problem solved.
I just think if Apple really want to crack at this they need to think it through more clearly.
No one needs an Apple Music Only speaker controlled by Siri.
But I think people do really want Apple in their living room and they'd love an actual Apple branded TV Display.
They still continue to tip toe around the edges of Home Theatre, rather than cannonball splashing into the whole thing.
Why I have no idea.
I think a lot of people already have things in these markets. Like, I already have a home hifi. Since it's tethered by a power cable - it really competes in that space. If anyone has anything like the Homepod they probably have it battery powered so it can be portable and taken anywhere. I have a Beoplay P2 for this purpose and its great.
I think the HomePod aimed at the living room primarily, but then its difficult to own in that space if you don't already own an Apple TV.
I honestly don't think APple thought about this product enough. Sure the tech is nice, the design is ace in my opinion, but not providing any Aux or Digital ins is a failing I think, it fails to let the device integrate into whatever home theatre setup users might already have.
Heck, put a HDMI on the back and make it an Apple TV and HOmepod in one - problem solved.
I just think if Apple really want to crack at this they need to think it through more clearly.
No one needs an Apple Music Only speaker controlled by Siri.
But I think people do really want Apple in their living room and they'd love an actual Apple branded TV Display.
They still continue to tip toe around the edges of Home Theatre, rather than cannonball splashing into the whole thing.
Why I have no idea.
Perhaps selling it in more than just 3 countries would help their sales numbers. Get a move on already!
The watch has about zero interesting third party apps, and it has a screen and you carry it with you everywhere you go. Not every platform needs or suits to be a third party app platform.
A watch is an accessory, where as a speaker is part of a system.
Can it play my tv audio? No.
Can it play music from outside iTunes/Apple Music? No.
Personally, buying a speaker that can only play music from the speaker company is insane. You wouldn’t buy a car if you could only gas up at the car manufactures gas stations would you?
exactly. The ecosystem was Steve's idea; Tim is just executing it with the precision of an administrator.
Yay watches and headphones and facial recognition and dongles and keyboards and speakers. Old as the hills and nobody has revolutionized them yet. Nobody has exploded those worlds, including Tim and his very competent and predictable approach.
He is incrementally better at some of it and incrementally worse at a few things like home assistants. Boring. Might as well move to Sony.
Get me the day the iPod launched and nobody understood it and it turned a trillion dollar industry on its ear.
That was the Steve era.
“Everything good is Steve Jobs and everything else is Tim Cook” -MacRumors.
I have two, and they are great for whole-home audio... but Siri sucks beyond belief. I don't think it has been improved since the iPhone 4 or whenever it came out. Siri doesn't work in my car half the time, and the way the home network and iOS direct all Siri requests at home to channel to the Hompods instead of your iOS devices you are specifically talking to is maddening, especially when reminders and alarms don't make it to your phone where you need them. It took a week for the Homepods to acknowledge my iTunes Match playlists, there is no stereo function... but everyone has covered this already. A $200 speaker IF they can ever get Siri to work with a dang would be killer... and they can phase in third-party functionality. Most of my lights are TP Links via Alexa and are pretty much flawless. Apple's HomeKit leaves a lot to be desired.
Apple's software is just plain terrible. Tim Cook doesn't listen, no one at Apple does. I've been a stockholder since iTunes 2 came out, and I no longer care about masterful JIT inventory. Apple has done nothing but get worse with interactivity and software since Cook took over.
Apple needs another brilliant madman running around the company telling people that things suck and firing people.
I, of course, volunteer.
[doublepost=1523509247][/doublepost]Tim Cook is not a leader. He is not a visionary. He is not a critic (internal or otherwise). He is not a media figure. He is not an advocate. He is a logistician. Apple needs a vision. All they are doing is more of the same, and while they are making huge busks with it, they are burning though all the goodwill and eventually Apple will soon motivate people to break the habit and go elsewhere.
Apple's software is just plain terrible. Tim Cook doesn't listen, no one at Apple does. I've been a stockholder since iTunes 2 came out, and I no longer care about masterful JIT inventory. Apple has done nothing but get worse with interactivity and software since Cook took over.
Apple needs another brilliant madman running around the company telling people that things suck and firing people.
I, of course, volunteer.
[doublepost=1523509247][/doublepost]Tim Cook is not a leader. He is not a visionary. He is not a critic (internal or otherwise). He is not a media figure. He is not an advocate. He is a logistician. Apple needs a vision. All they are doing is more of the same, and while they are making huge busks with it, they are burning though all the goodwill and eventually Apple will soon motivate people to break the habit and go elsewhere.
Siri is years behind the competition, Homekit will remain a joke until Apple starts opening it up, the price is too high. What were they expecting? It's a half-baked product for enthusiasts at the moment. Will it be a hit? I believe so - but not until these points will have been fixed. I guess the next generation will be good.
Siri is just terrible and products like this sadly highlight it all too well.
Anyone could run Apple. -MacRumors
Your JBL8 do Stereo?
you can listen to Spotify with your JBL8?
On homepods you cant even setup the sound. no EQ.
Apple decides how we hear music, whatever genre it is.
All this silly things are showstoppers.
Apple should release hardware when the features are implemented and everything works rock solid.
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But Apple can not compete with ‘smart’ due to Siri? So they went with ‘sound’ quality and style.
It’s really easy to run Apple from your armchair. It’s easy to both complain about innovation and then say “just throw powerful parts in a desktop tower”. Innovation! Do everything everyone else is doing like they’re doing!
That’s MacRumors in a nutshell.
My parents have one and honestly after few weeks even though sound quality is great, Siri really needs to step it up, also not a fan of Apple Music.
And intergrate with Spotify and others outside the Apple eco system.
Personally, why wouldn’t you get google now or amazon. For those that are waiting, I think competitor products sound quality will go up as they will see it was a great feature.