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Apple Discontinues Full-Sized HomePod to Focus on HomePod Mini

Apple need to be more transparent about how long they intend to support this thing, I can see the servers being shut down and it just working as a dumb airplay speaker in future.
 
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They should have killed Siri instead.

And release a voice assistance on all their platforms that is actually useful. And if it means more data mining and profiling, then so be it. Give customers the choice: stupid privacy centred Siri or this new assistant. They‘d be surprised how many people would switch in a heart beat.
 
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darthbane2k said:
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.
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I never claimed it was faulty? It works fine. I just don’t think it’s great sounding with only one, and was told stereo set ups are much better, but I’m not prepared to fork out another £270 to find out.

and Siri is awful.
 
this is shortsighted. Looking just on profitability it might be justified - but the big HomePod contributed to an overall Apple audio ecosystem, that has just become smaller.
The HomePod mini is more a voice-entry device than a decent speaker for music.
 
I liked the concept but always thought they were too expensive and they were really designed for folks completely in the Apple ecosystem. They sound good, but not $349 (initial release) good. Wouldn't be surprised to see Apple bring something to the market that is higher end than the minis.
 
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Rob_2811 said:
Because Apple have made TV+ plus available on Roku, Fire TV and most of the common smart TV platforms and are starting to make Airplay available on third party hardware too.

Where is the market for a streaming box that is priced at four or five times what you can get a competing device with the same fuctionality for? Only Apple die hards will care and that won't be enough for Apple to bother manufacturing them.
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You could be right. they were not able to replicate the App Store success on the ATV, so either they try one last time (maybe focus on gaming or find another angle in the smart home area), or they‘ll pull the plug as well.

And then it’s goodbye Apple Smart Home. That would be a very sad day. But lets face it, smart homes should be at peak innovation by now, and what does Apple do? Absolutely nothing. HomeKit is stagnant. Let’s hope iOS 15 proves me wrong.
 
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Sad trombone sound....

I bought a pair when on massive discount---they are excellent in tandem/stereo and work great as speakers for Apple TV.

I can see why they are being cancelled though---RIP, little chubby guy.

Enjoy your place in Apple history alongside the Puck Mouse, the G4 Cube, the Pippin, Ping, Butterfly Keyboard and 2013 Mac Pro.
 
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Interesting maybe it’s all down to price related and clearly Apple have seen a great reaction to the mini versions that makes more sense improving those

I hope they bring out a google home this device
 
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Wow, I just bought a second one for the Dolby Atmos thing. It's really great.

Really hope they continue to support the software at least for those that dished 650-700 into their "smart speakers" only released 3 years ago. I control all my Hue Lights with my HomePod as well as my TV and NanoLeaf. Hope they don't kill that in a year or two too.
 
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No surprise, never sold well enough, too expensive given alternative options and Siri was bad. Great in terms of sound quality but the writing has been on the wall for a while. The Mini is more in line with what the masses want and is probably selling better than this one ever has.

Remember folks, Apple is moving towards the mass market, not the niche one anymore.
 
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darthbane2k said:
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.
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Yeah, I‘ve been hoping for Sonos to add Siri, but so far no news :( Siri is terrible compared to other voice assistants, but it is handy for basic controls and as you said for Homekit commands.
 
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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HomePod Pro?
 
darthbane2k said:
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! 🙄
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The mini seems like a strange product that has all the limitations of the bigger Homepod but without the sound quality.

I'll be interested to see where that is in 3-4 years time.
 
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TheDailyApple said:
I expect they'll release a hi-end HomePod (i.e. HomePod Max) which will essentially be a replacement for the original HomePod and make the mini the standard model.

No change overall, but better marketing. The original HomePod might have been worth its price, but releasing it first and marketing it as the standard model put it in competition with the Amazon's Echo and Google's Nest instead of it's true competitors like Sonos.
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Except it couldn’t match Sonos either in price, sound or features.
 
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If this was a true “Home-Pod” and served a number of functions such as AirPort router and / or AppleTV replacement in addition to speaker, most Apple fanatics here would have bought multiples. Many of these live next to a TV anyway. Huge missed opportunity.

Apple proved once that a premium mass-market speaker doesn’t work (Hi-Fi) so why would they do the same thing again? It’s added bonus is Siri? Please, that’s more like a detriment.

Wireless mesh speaker setup and an AC mesh router at launch and I would have one on each floor and in the garage today. Shame all around.
 
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Lounge vibes 05 said:
I highly doubt this, mainly due to the name. If there’s just a HomePod mini, that’s kind of stupid.
That would be like them discontinuing the regular iPad, and all the other iPads, but keeping around an iPad mini.
But not completely unexpected
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Did you read the article? There’s a statement from Apple in there that can easily be missed if you just read the headline.
 
Looking at all this logically, apple have said they are focusing their attention on the mini, which I can imagine has been a hit at the $99 price tag.

So I think what we are going to see is the mini get updated over and over again eventually maturing into a HomePod replacement.

Is the HomePod going to die...?? Not a chance, they have already thrown themselves into the market although with a false start, the mini has changed that now though.

Is HomeKit going to die...?? Not a chance, HomeKit is here to stay no matter what they won’t pull the plug on it as smart home technology is still in the maturing stage at this point.

Is the original HomePod going to loose support/updates etc...??? it probably will at some point in the future just like any apple device, but I should imagine it will end around the same time as support/updates for the mini ends, any update they can bring to the mini they will likely be able to bring to the big boy, the iPhone 6S which got discontinued in 2016 got iOS14 which is 4 years after it was discontinued. So I can imagine we will still get updates until at least 2025.

Will there be a HomePod 2...??? Possibly, but in my opinion not for a long while... Apple are no way going to throw out another $300+ smart speaker anytime without it being revolutionary which will come with a large price tag, I think they will simply work on refining the mini before hammering out a higher priced version (that’s if they feel they need to).
 
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