Apple Discontinues Full-Sized HomePod to Focus on HomePod Mini

ChinaRye said:
I have a stereo pair and love the sound, but I live in an apartment building and the bass is a little too much even at low volumes. I may offload the big ones for a pair of minis. If I wasn’t living in an apartment building, I would never let go of the pair of HomePods I have now. The sound that comes out of them is truly amazing, but I don’t feel like I am getting the most out of them since I have to keep the volume lower so I don’t disturb my neighbors, especially since I like to listen to music late at night. I wish Apple would allow us to adjust the bass. C’est la vie.
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I feel the exact same in my flat I can’t use them as I get complaints they should of allowed us to decrease the bass I brought minis and now I don’t have the problem
 
I think that $200 was the sweet spot for the HomePod, but they couldn't make it work. But I think the big thing holding back the HomePod is the lack of an App Store. (i.e An apple equivalent to Alexa skills). The iPhone took off when they introduced the App Store. The Apple TV took off when they introduced the App Store. Learn from history Apple.
 
Weird. I have a HomePod and a HomePod Mini. I had high hopes for the Mini; it's OK but nowhere near the sound quality of the full sized version. I guess there will always be good quality speakers on the market, so if I need something similar in the future there will be something good from Sonos or Bose.
 
Dang. I’m happy to have mine, but I got it for $199. It fills out the living room nicely where a mini wouldn’t. The other rooms in my house will do just fine with a mini though.
 
I have two as a stereo pair and they sound great. I’m disappointed in this news. I guess Airpods Max are next.
 
I wonder how long before its functionality is bricked when Apple no longer supports it. That's why people were mad that it didn't support Bluetooth or have an auxiliary input.

It'll just be electronic garbage when the powers that be decide that it's no long worth maintaining or updating - when it could have still been used as a hardwired or bluetooth speaker.
 
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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Right. And who said that the HomePod sold poorly? Did Apple? There's always been assumption it has, but I've never heard anything official.
 
jonnyb098 said:
I’m actually pretty shocked by this. Yeah they priced it too high but the sound is incredible for it’s size. Why not just lower the price and keep it around for 199
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Current HomePod probably isn’t profitable at that price. I could see them launching something closer to the $199 price point down the road that has better sound than the mini but not quite the level of the original.
 
James Godfrey said:
A bit unnerving to hear this, especially as I currently have 3 in my home plus 2 minis.

If one dies replacing it with a mini seems a bit meh.... and a bit strange that they have just got atmos and home theatre too seems extremely strange.

I have a feeling we may see the mini change to HomePod and then a HomePod Pro or HomePod Max being released in the distant future, maybe a few years down the line.
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Your comment about what happens when one dies is exactly the reason why, after falling in love with the first two pairs of OG HomePods that I purchased to use as speakers for my Apple TV4Ks, that I went out and purchased a third pair (all three pairs purchased on sale, of course!) just in case Apple decided to discontinue the OG HomePod. That said, I‘m betting they are discontinuing this model to replace it with a new, more powerful model.

BTW, I have found that even though I have a very fast fiber optic internet connection, if I try to set up two pairs of OG HomePods as default speakers for the ATVs at the same time, my WiFi grinds to a screeching halt—or at least to a snail’s pace. From what I can tell, the bandwidth that is consumed by doing so simply cripples my WiFI. There’s an entire thread on this topic here in the Forums. Maybe a new ATV + new HomePod with BT instead of AirPlay 2 (which consumes WiFI bandwidth) would solve this. One can hope.
 
jonnyb098 said:
Part of the problem is that apple came late when the market was dominated by others and they came in way too high on price. I think the HomePod is incredible for its size but $349 was way too much for people to digest when the market was owned by much cheaper alternatives. They should've lowered the price to 199 last year when they announced the mini. Sadly this became the next iPod hifi. That too had great sound but was way overpriced. The sad reality is that most people only care if something sounds “good enough”. Clearly the HomePod mini accomplishes that at 1/3 the price.

This is also confusing considering they just launched $599 headphones.
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Homepod was aimed at Sonos not the Echo. IT is priced in line with Sonos. But Sonos was already the Apple of that market. And I don't think Apple brought anything to the game overall to unseat them.

for me the one thing Apple brought to the table was the HOmepod worked with the Apple tv. it killed 2 birds with 1 stone for me. i got some handy nice music speakers and tv soundbar in one. And it was convenient to hook to the tv. It got even better last fall with a TV OS update.

Yeah i wouldn't be surprised if the $599 headphones aren't around in a few years either.
 
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