its a good trope...it reminds Apple they are off the path. There is a reason why Apple product is not like Lenovo, Dell, Acer, or HP.
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Apple Developing New 'HomePod' Models With Screens and Cameras
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its a good trope...it reminds Apple they are off the path. There is a reason why Apple product is not like Lenovo, Dell, Acer, or HP.
I remember when I originally bought the Google wifi range extenders, I thought they were also google home devices. They launched at the exact same time, and I felt like it was a huge missed opportunity.
I don't think Apple should come out with a Nest type product and try to out-Google or out-Amazon those companies - it won't work. They need to focus.
They need to focus on a part of the home that they have an advantage - audio (Apple Music) and video (Apple + streaming, and people's home movies on their iphones).
Those two areas can converge on one spot - a soundbar for the television. It would double as a music player and AppleTV/Siri. Not an $800 high end Bar, but a smaller but good sounding soundbar along the lines of a Sonos Beam for $400 so that many people would buy it because TVs now have such crappy speakers. It could use the TV to display things like calendar and recipes, etc.
Imagine Siri being good enough to instantly retrieve and play back Aunt Mabel's 80th birthday party video from your iPhone through quick command to the soundbar and displayed instantly on the attached TV.
Then after the video is over, having Aunt Mabel's favourite Lawrence Welk music played on soundbar through Apple Music.
This soundbar could be the base for connected new smaller Homepod 2s throughout the house.
They need to focus on a part of the home that they have an advantage - audio (Apple Music) and video (Apple + streaming, and people's home movies on their iphones).
Those two areas can converge on one spot - a soundbar for the television. It would double as a music player and AppleTV/Siri. Not an $800 high end Bar, but a smaller but good sounding soundbar along the lines of a Sonos Beam for $400 so that many people would buy it because TVs now have such crappy speakers. It could use the TV to display things like calendar and recipes, etc.
Imagine Siri being good enough to instantly retrieve and play back Aunt Mabel's 80th birthday party video from your iPhone through quick command to the soundbar and displayed instantly on the attached TV.
Then after the video is over, having Aunt Mabel's favourite Lawrence Welk music played on soundbar through Apple Music.
This soundbar could be the base for connected new smaller Homepod 2s throughout the house.
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the path that was set by the guy who turned the company from bankruptcy to $300 Billion at his death? then took them all the way to $2T using same methods? hmmmm....
You said Apple is off the path. If this is what “off the path” looks like then I hope they never step foot on a path again!
I didn't wait. Late last year, I picked up a Google/Nest Hub Max to support the Nest IQ cam and the Doorbell. It all works great, and the associated iOS app. I just purchased a pre-order of the Nest Hub V.2 for another area. I like Google Assistant when used with an integrated display. I prefer my multiple HomePods for music.
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Honestly for me the HomePod has been a let down. It often misses the commands for HomeKit controls. I think it is a brilliant speaker but the Siri controls have been very subpar. Now I will admit that there could be an issue with my setup for HomeKit (and honestly this is mostly apple's fault.) I have more than one original HomePod. I have 4 in total (two stereo pairs) and 3 minis. I have noticed that since you cannot designate which HomePod you want to be the "Home Hub" many times the furtherest one from my router will be "in charge" so of course there is going to be connection issues despite having excellent wifi signal in my home (Wifi 6 and a strong, wired mesh network.) If the Home App would simply allow me to make my Living room 4K Apple TV (which is hard wired) be the HomeKit hub I think there would be less issues. There is tons of potential with the ecosystem but it seems to be on the back burner. I really hope Apple puts some serious resources behind the HomeKit experience with iOS/etc 15. I love the high security but it is falling behind in quality control.
Its off the path with the HomePod which they themselves discontinued, so....
Yeah, the Homepod was a quirky stand alone product that really didn't seem to have a clear purpose. Audiophile speaker for Apple Music? Not really, since when it was introduced it couldn't even stereo pair. Audiophiles want stereo. Party speaker? No. No battery for portability, no Bluetooth.
Smart speaker for Homekit/Siri? Too expensive at $350.
Apple may well feel that they just want to be “in the game”, but don’t have to win it. But if that is true, then I strongly disagree. If they are so shortsighted that they don’t understand the game changing importance of machine learning and having a virtual assistant that operates much more comprehensively and intuitively, then heaven help Apple. At a certain point, being tied to the worst AI Virtual Assistant will be the boat anchor around their necks that pulls the whole ship down. In the future, tour guides will lead groups of people over the wreckage site and say “here lies the biggest hardware company in the world, who forgot they were a software company too...”