Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Cuts HomePod Orders After Sales Prove to Be Lackluster

I don’t care what Bloomberg says, this doesn’t mean the HomePod is not successful even if it was selling any less. I think the HomePod is not for everybody given its price point, but it does deliver an audio experience, which is primarily function of the HomePod first and it does that very well, it doesn’t have to be a smart speaker like the other competitors in order to be successful.

I think some think that if the HomePod is not flying off the shelf, it must not be doing well. And that’s not how to measure a product. The HomePod itself in the long run, will be successful for those who want something different other than being just a smart speaker.
 
Soccertess said:
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.
Click to expand...

You’re both saying they should buy from Google now and that they will make better sounding hardware in the future.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jacksmith21006
bbednarz said:
If it was $200 I can guarantee I would own one even if the sound quality wasn't quite as good. $350 is just way more than I can justify for ONE speaker..
Click to expand...

Agreed, I ultimately chose the Sonos One. They had an offer of buy TWO for $350. Yes, the HomePod may look better, and some reviews say it’s sounds a little better, but for twice the price? Come on Apple.

The Ones have Alexa which is hands down better than Siri, and the Ones still work with Apple Music (just not voice activated). Airplay 2 still isnt our yet which annoys me. I normally buy everything Apple, but this was one of the first things where I actually stopped myself. It was simply too much money for not enough compared to the rivals.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bbednarz
Relentless Power said:
The HomePod itself in the long run, will be successful for those who want something different other than being just a smart speaker.
Click to expand...

What's different about it? It's not even a great smart speaker.

I have listened to the HomePod and while it's good, the sound quality isn't ground breaking if you have ever spent similar or more money on speakers.

The hardware is good but Apple excluded alot of customer by omitting Spotify support or the ability for Android owner to use the device.

It reminds me of how Sony used to ruin their own products by forcing user to transpose mp3 songs to their own stupid format.

No loss though as the are plenty of other more affordable speakers or better ones like the Sonos Play5.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iSilas, graphiteevo, trellus and 1 other person
Michael Goff said:
“Everything good is Steve Jobs and everything else is Tim Cook” -MacRumors.
Click to expand...
"Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugar water?"
-Steve Jobs to Tim Scully (then ceo of Pepsi} on why reliably rehashing versions of the same old popular product is the pursuit of the mediocre.

Scully took Steve's advice and came to apple but ultimately drove Steve out for attempting to execute his vision rather than just shipping mediocre products into a saturated market to please shareholders.

Scully then proceeded to nearly bankrupt the company by doing the same things other companies were already good at.

Steve came back and got back to work. This was the Think Different era, influential to me in particular because I was in uni.

You may be too young to remember the magic of that time.

Anyway it's not that Apple is bad. It's that they forgot how to apple.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: trellus, TrentS and arkitect
OldSchoolMacGuy said:
Why? Unless they plan on buying multiple HomePods, there's no advantage to it.
Click to expand...

You are 100% correct on this. I have two, want two more but decided to hold back until its rolled out. Sure there is no advantage to me waiting, but there is no advantage for me spending the money today to have the speakers not be used.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Applebot1
Apple shouldn't have made a smart speaker. A good Airplay speaker would've been better for 100 less and wouldn't draw such high expectations. Outside of the USA people aren't talking to their devices, so adding Siri or having another smart speaker system is to no use for most of the world. For just the great sound it's too expensive.

If Apple cancels the HomePod I hope they'll put the hardware engineers on the Mac full speed ahead. The Mac is a market that's been growing for about 28 out of the last 30 quarters while it's ignored by Apple, that's insane. If Apple actually update the Mac Pro sooner, introduced a 32/64 GB RAM MacBook Pro, new Mac Mini and new MacBook Air the financial win would be way bigger than this hobby. It would also draw way more people into the complete Apple ecosystem.
 
They were way too late to the party, plus selling them at a premium price in already saturated market, plus privacy concerns over having a hot mic in ones house, at a time the Facebook scandal woke a lot of people up about what a private company can share with special interests.

It was doomed from the start.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iSilas and TrentS
Waiting to see what if any software upgrades are announced at WWDC. I don’t care that Siri isn’t as “smart” as its competitors; I’m not going to play trivial pursuit with it. However, there are some VERY BASIC things are lacking, such as stereo pairing, being able to set an alarm to Apple Music, turn on and search Apple TV, and initiate a phone call. And if they want to knock $100 off the price tag as well I won’t complain. Right now there’s nothing HomePod can do that my iPad Pro with Siri cannot. And the speakers on the iPad Pro are actually pretty impressive for a tablet.
 
  • Like
Reactions: trellus
At $349, and an estimated $133 profit per unit, selling 7M units for a total of $930M profit seems ... not so bad. I know Apple hit just over $50B in profit for 2017, but that shouldn't throw cold water on a brand new product (potentially) earning about $1B in profit, or almost 2% of Apple's record 2017 nut. I don't know when it became vogue to decouple opinion from critical thinking - a growing phenomenon and fairly prevalent here at MR - but I doubt everyone throwing shade on HomePod as some kind of failed product would do it if this were a standalone company. I think the tech media and Wall Street have conditioned the lemmings to think if Apple doesn't sell a gazillion of something and make a bazillion dollars, it's a sign of the end.

Source of HomePod margin estimates: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-speaker-costs-216-to-build-techinsights-says
 
You release a beta product you get a beta product sales, this homepod launch was poor, no design video, no explanation for the benefit of having one from feature point of view , on top of that a lot of features are missing till this day, apple needed to launch it just like the first apple watch, they didn't give it the proper attention
 
  • Like
Reactions: jacksmith21006 and Feyl
dirt_farmer said:
"Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugar water?"
-Steve Jobs to Tim Scully (then ceo of Pepsi} on why reliably rehashing versions of the same old popular product is the pursuit of the mediocre.

Scully took Steve's advice and came to apple but ultimately drove Steve out for attempting to execute his vision rather than just shipping mediocre products into a saturated market to please shareholders.

Scully then proceeded to nearly bankrupt the company by doing the same things other companies were already good at.

Steve came back and got back to work. This was the Think Different era, influential to me in particular because I was in uni.

You may be too young to remember the magic of that time.

Anyway it's not that Apple is bad. It's that they forgot how to apple.
Click to expand...

And what do you mean by forgetting how to Apple? Please don’t use a cliche term like innovate.
 
This was entirely predictable and avoidable. Apple announced this product, delayed it 100 days, and then released it with a crippled Siri that can’t hold a candle to Amazon and Google’s assistants.

In other news, the Mac is doing relatively well compared to worldwide PC shipments despite Apple completely losing sight of what made Apple great in the past: innovative hardware running simple yet powerful software.

As sad as I am to say this, Tim Cook is more focused on being the darling of social justice and advancing certain agendas than he is on continuing Apple’s great legacy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jacksmith21006, albebaubles and Queen6
This thing already needs a second revision.

I expect Siri to improve significantly over the next couple years and recent hires seem to indicate Apple is really addressing this issue. That aside...

The lack of inputs is problematic. Heck, Ethernet would be good enough for my needs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jacksmith21006
BaccaBossMC said:
What on earth did they think was going to happen when they went to twice the price of their main competitors...
Click to expand...

and half the features....

Apple's design philosophy has been AWFUL the last 5 years, we all understand that simplicity is good. but not at the cost of function.

  • iphone - no headphone jack
  • macbook pro - no usb,
  • iphone X - no home button or touch ID
  • homepod - no inputs

Plus we all lose because we need to carry around dongles for everything, so NOTHING is benefited by these design choices.

And the slap in the face, paying a premium for these devices.

Making dumb design choices like this will hurt apple, as the competition grows they will have less market share and others will have better pricing. Apple is getting old and their team is getting washed up with the same old gimmicks.

I wish Apple would listen to customer feedback.

SAD
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: jacksmith21006, iSilas, trellus and 4 others
Macalicious2011 said:
What's different about it? It's not even a great smart speaker.
Click to expand...

Its NOT just a smart speaker, which has been emphasized multiple times through Apples marking. It’s primarily a music player first, then a smart speaker. But in terms of sound quality, it does very well compared to the competition and puts out the sound, which is what Apple has been advocating from the start.

Macalicious2011 said:
I have listened to the HomePod and while it's good, the sound quality isn't ground breaking if you have ever spent similar or more money on speakers..
Click to expand...

Why does the HomePod sound need to be “Groundbreaking”? I think you’re downplaying the HomePod more than it needs to be. It’s way more than adequate enough than some of the other smart speakers on the market and the amount of engineering that went into the HomePod clearly exemplifies that it’s an excellent sound piece in somebody’s home.
 
I’m a big Apple nut but it just isn’t an appealing product at that price point with the very limited connectivity and limited smartness.

I’d still get one as it is, but at $249 max.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jacksmith21006 and arkitect
I guess Sonos can forget filing for liquidation then? Phew

/s

Seriously. This is a device really pushing selling due to the Apple Brand. It’s not that smart (looking at you Siri), much more expensive than competitors, half the features to make it EQUAL to competitors aren’t ready, and people just got bored waiting for it to actually become available
 
Why do people call these smart speakers? They respond to voice commands but they’re not smart. People seem to confuse those categories. Smart would be if Siri knew something before I did or reminded me about something I forgot.

The only smart feature that is currently available I can think of is travel time alerts for appointments, as they take traffic conditions into account. Otherwise she’s dumb as f...

One small example: I ask her directions to a store. Siri, in all her wisdom, suggests a store on the other side of the world. So I lookup the store by typing the name. Two minutes later I ask Siri again and she again points me to the other side of the world. She’s not learning anything and remains as frustrating to deal with.

I don’t know about Alexa or google Home as I don’t use those but Siri is not “behind” in terms of capabilities, she’s just not smart. By a long stretch.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: trellus, Will.O.Bie and carlsson
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back