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Apple Discontinues Full-Sized HomePod to Focus on HomePod Mini

Not sorry to see this product discontinued.

I have one in the kitchen. It sounds drab and awful and the voice control is utterly hopeless. I only ever play music thru it via Airplay.

I’ve heard that a stereo pair is more than twice as good as a single HomePod. But frankly who cares? HomePod is already a premium product - but it doesn’t sound like one. Not sure I’d take the risk of buying two just to get a decent sound.
 
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calstanford said:
They should kill both then.

The Mini sounds absolut crap for what it is and Siri is still as useless as ever. Either get a better speaker system (UE, Bose, Sonos, whatever you like) or get a better voice system (Alexa, Google).
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Haha they haven't bridged that gap correct
 
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Rob_2811 said:
Ok, nobody knows how that is going to pan out so that seems like a strange comparison to make.

I suspect we might be seeing an article like this about the Airpods Max in a few years, they seem way too expensive to get any kind of mainstream appeal.
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I made the comparison as I see AirPods Max offering some clues on where Apple would go with a new, larger HomePod.

With the AirPods Max Apple clearly expects these to be a relatively low volume item. They have regular AirPods to make up the volume of sales. The Max sit at the premium end where Apple are able to make a decent margin on each sale.

With the HomePod, Apple wanted some volume out of this from the off as it was their sole speaker however it was priced too high for the market hence the subsequent discounts. This will have impacted on margin per sale but Apple needed volume in this space.

Now they have the mini, this speaker fills that role which leaves the regular HomePod as an odd one out. Apple can’t increase the price without a significant update, but a significant update doesn’t make financial sense with falling sales and slim margins. A big price bump on a similar product also probably wouldn’t be a good PR move and the product simply doesn’t offer enough above the mini to justify it. They need to start a fresh.

Which is why I believe they’ve made this announcement. They don’t want any new, large speaker to be seen as a successor or update to the HomePod but a new product in its own right. Expect a price tag north of $500 with better materials, all new design and stereo. The best sound for your living room and home theatre.
 
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They need to sort Siri out, having come from the Google Home I cannot believe how atrocious Siri is at answering questions.

"Who starred in Knight Rider?"... "The Dark Knight Rises features Christian Bale..."
"Who starred in the TV SERIES Knight Rider?"... "I can't get info about TV programmes on HomePod"

and of course the scourge of "I have found some information on the web, I'll send it to your iPhone"... errr, NO, if I wanted the information on my phone I would have looked it up on my phone, you're a smart speaker TELL ME the answer! Google Home only sent things to my phone to supplement information it had already verbally given me.

Apple need to sit people in a room with Siri and Google Assistant, and every time GA answers a question and Siri doesn't they need to find out why and fix it.

I read an article from the original developers of Siri that Apple acquired that Siri was never designed to do the things Apple has made it do, it was only designed to be a simple assistant, and to make Siri an effective alternative to Google or Alexa they would need to start over from scratch.

The founders of Siri have since moved on, formed a new company, and developed an new assistant called Viv.
 
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HomePod mini in my kitchen unplugged this morning and replaced with my last remaining echo. All I wanted to do was airplay an audiobook that was already downloaded to my iPhone to the HomePod mini. It kept disconnecting. Then I tried to handoff the book playing on my iPhone to the HomePod mini. What did it do it decided to transfer the audio from my Apple TV instead.
 
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tomtad said:
I made the comparison as I see AirPods Max offering some clues on where Apple would go with a new, larger HomePod.

With the AirPods Max Apple clearly expects these to be a relatively low volume item. They have regular AirPods to make up the volume of sales. The Max sit at the premium end where Apple are able to make a decent margin on each sale.

With the HomePod, Apple wanted some volume out of this from the off as it was their sole speaker however it was priced too high for the market hence the subsequent discounts. This will have impacted on margin per sale but Apple needed volume in this space.

Now they have the mini, this speaker fills that role which leaves the regular HomePod as an odd one out. Apple can’t increase the price without a significant update, but a significant update doesn’t make financial sense with falling sales and slim margins. A big price bump on a similar product also probably wouldn’t be a good PR move and the product simply doesn’t offer enough above the mini to justify it. They need to start a fresh.

Which is why I believe they’ve made this announcement. They don’t want any new, large speaker to be seen as a successor or update to the HomePod but a new product in its own right. Expect a price tag north of $500 with better materials, all new design and stereo. The best sound for your living room and home theatre.
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Good luck with that. Nothing in the statement Apple gave to Techcrunch suggests anything else is coming.
 
darthbane2k said:
If I want the same room filling quality as HomePod then my cheapest choice Is Play 5. That’s £500.
I have a Sonos One and it doesn’t compare to HomePod.
Airplay 2 on Sonos doesn’t work as reliably as HomePod. With Sonos I also cannot command Siri directly nor access any iCloud integration, nor add songs to my library from Apple Music radio etc etc The tradeoffs are too many.
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I think your point it correct, but maybe that is not the selling point that makes people want one.

Yes, 1 Homepod sounds better than a Sonos One. But what's the point if I have to exclusively use AppleTV to use them with my TV in the living room? So I get either 2 Sonos Ones + a Beam for 850€ or 2 Homepods (without surround like the Sonos setup) for 660€. The Sonos solution plays all audio from the TV and any other streaming devices, plus airplay, spotify etc.

And Sonos also plays my entire Apple Music library including radio. It does lack Siri integration, that is absolutely a pro for the Homepod and annoying once you're used to just telling Siri what to play. But again, the tradeoffs go both ways.
 
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johnhackworth said:
Not sorry to see this product discontinued.

I have one in the kitchen. It sounds drab and awful and the voice control is utterly hopeless. I only ever play music thru it via Airplay.

I’ve heard that a stereo pair is more than twice as good as a single HomePod. But frankly who cares? HomePod is already a premium product - but it doesn’t sound like one. Not sure I’d take the risk of buying two just to get a decent sound.
Click to expand...
This was my dilemma too. Also being told by some of the Apple die-hards on here that I’m using my HomePod wrong by only having one of them didn’t feel like the best of advice.

will probably move over to Sonos pretty soon.
 
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I would like to see Apple release a new ATV with a U1 chip which in turn communicates with the HomePod Mini's U1 chip allowing you to build a home theatre system meaning when you place a Mini in a room the ATV will know the position of the speaker allowing you to build a 2.0, 5.0, 7.0 system.

This is a personal opinion as I've got to the stage where I no longer like large speakers in the room but the Mini is small enough to hide away.
 
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FranzMarc said:
I think your point it correct, but maybe that is not the selling point that makes people want one.

Yes, 1 Homepod sounds better than a Sonos One. But what's the point if I have to exclusively use AppleTV to use them with my TV in the living room? So I get either 2 Sonos Ones + a Beam for 850€ or 2 Homepods (without surround like the Sonos setup) for 660€. The Sonos solution plays all audio from the TV and any other streaming devices, plus airplay, spotify etc.

And Sonos also plays my entire Apple Music library including radio. It does lack Siri integration, that is absolutely a pro for the Homepod and annoying once you're used to just telling Siri what to play. But again, the tradeoffs go both ways.
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So it seems the solution is to get Sonos and perhaps a HomePod mini alongside it so I can invoke HomeKit commands. If that’s the case I may as well go full Alexa as it’s built into Sonos speakers. Seems like Apple are killing HomeKit too.
 
SirAnthonyHopkins said:
This was my dilemma too. Also being told by some of the Apple die-hards on here that I’m using my HomePod wrong by only having one of them didn’t feel like the best of advice.

will probably move over to Sonos pretty soon.
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I doubt your HomePod was faulty. Most likely the room acoustics. If you have a spacious room with no soft furnishings it will sound worse.
 
MJaP said:
They need to sort Siri out, having come from the Google Home I cannot believe how atrocious Siri is at answering questions.

"Who starred in Knight Rider?"... "The Dark Knight Rises features Christian Bale..."
"Who starred in the TV SERIES Knight Rider?"... "I can't get info about TV programmes on HomePod"

and of course the scourge of "I have found some information on the web, I'll send it to your iPhone"... errr, NO, if I wanted the information on my phone I would have looked it up on my phone, you're a smart speaker TELL ME the answer! Google Home only sent things to my phone to supplement information it had already verbally given me.

Apple need to sit people in a room with Siri and Google Assistant, and every time GA answers a question and Siri doesn't they need to find out why and fix it.

I read an article from the original developers of Siri that Apple acquired that Siri was never designed to do the things Apple has made it do, it was only designed to be a simple assistant, and to make Siri an effective alternative to Google or Alexa they would need to start over from scratch.

The founders of Siri have since moved on, formed a new company, and developed an new assistant called Viv.
Click to expand...
I'll be honest. How trash Siri is, is the sole reason I haven't bothered even THINKING about getting a HomePod and the price point is the only reason I've even vaguely thought about the Mini, but Siri kills that pretty quick. Just earlier today, I tried to use Siri to open an app on my iPhone, and my Apple Watch chimes in "You don't have that app on your Apple Watch. Please visit the App Store."

Siri, when it works, is cool. But that happens so infrequently, I usually don't even bother, except maybe when I'm driving I'll TRY as long as it's not for a text. The speech recognition is super hit-or-miss for me.
 
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kage207 said:
My problem is that Siri isn’t good. Otherwise, I’d buy one.
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Exactly that... and the fact that the homepod (mini) is basically a huge commercial into Apple Music.

I purchased all my songs via iTunes and prefer that instead of a subscription. Yet any time I use the homepod, besides having to deal with a frustrated teenager (=Siri) it usually ends up with "Not available on Apple Music"...

Siri just mentions "on Apple Music" so often that it's just annoying. I don't have it, you don't need to remind me about not having it, I wanted to play the song from my library (not from Apple Music) and I don't need a reminder about getting an Apple music Subscription.

Also without Apple Music I feel the homepod is nutered. I want to play my playlist of music I own via iTunes -> not possible. I mean c'mon really? Does the "it just works" standard need to be lowered to "It just works - if you have an Apple Music Subscription" ?
 
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Patchwork said:
I’m not at all surprised to be honest as expensive, uses Siri and you really need to subscribe to Apple Music to get the best out of it. I also don’t think we will see a replacement as very unlike Apple to drop a product before the replacement has been announced.
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Exactly that... If it could just play playlists it'd be passable, but nope only works with Apple Music... Siri is subpar and the "Apple just nailed" it is definitely NOT there ( unless you pay additional subscription fees ). I feel it's a disappointing product by conscious decision.
 
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Shame - love the sound of the HomePod - now it won't be supported what other great sounding smart speaker is there
 
Thinking about it now, if the future is HomePod mini (of which the sound quality is garbage) and if the main focus is cheap, why would I buy a mini over a sonos roam or even a Sonos Symfonisk?
To me the minis days are just as numbered, so seems like the time to sell them all and go full Sonos. Well done Apple! 🙄
 
I'm really surprised by this but it just goes to show how some rumors are actually just guesses. There have been rumors of an upcoming HomePod refresh.
 
Should I buy another one so I can have stereo or think about another home theater system (ex: Sonos)? Thanks.
 
That's very sad.
My parents have this model and the sound quality is amazing.

At least there will still be a HomePod available, in some shape or form.

I was going to wait till the end of the month to order one, in case there was a new one announced at the rumoured upcoming event.

I’ll order one now, before they sell out.
 
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