Apple Discontinues Full-Sized HomePod to Focus on HomePod Mini

[I7guy]

People actually expect to be using a HomePod in 20 years?

What tech products from 2001 are you using right now?

I had a Pioneer (I think) gorgeous projection tv for 25 years. A Luxman receiver for 20 years. An Pioneer sx-1250, which I threw out after 20 years, that I see is selling on ebay for thousands of dollars. So is it within the realm of possibility a homepod could last for 20 years?

 

[robjulo]

It's simpler than that. Apple will release a much improved and better sounding HomePod 2 (or Max/whatever) on March 23rd. Think about the timing. The first HomePod will likely still be working just fine 10-12 years from now.

I wish I could say the amount of hand-wringing in this thread is astonishing. But people flip-out on the smallest things and always assume the worst. It's like it's in their DNA.

Are you going to post back in this thread when you are wrong on March 23rd? Doubt it.

 

[ntlman]

I recently bought off of eBay a restored iPod Classic 5.5 (hi-fi), now outfitted with a 1TB ssd and 3000mHz battery. Not only is it 10x the storage, because it is now an SSD instead of a trad spinning drive, it requires even less charging.

It was totally worth it for the audio experience: the Wolfson chip is everything the audiophile forums said it was and then some.

And it was made possible by solid engineering, with a future-proof headphone jack! 😜 If the original HomePod had come with the same combo headphone/optical audio input that the Mac Mini used to have, I think it would have been a no-brainer even for audiophiles like me who love their nerded out specific listening setups. Without it, it's hard to imagine it having a shelf life beyond 10 years max, even with care and updates.

 

[Rob_2811]

I had a Pioneer (I think) gorgeous projection tv for 25 years. A Luxman receiver for 20 years. An Pioneer sx-1250, which I threw out after 20 years, that I see is selling on ebay for thousands of dollars. So is it within the realm of possibility a homepod could last for 20 years?

They don't support Airplay on anything older than 2012 so by current standards, no.

 

[I7guy]

Shouldn't he be like "Pentium 4" guy still?

Actually I built a new desktop with an intel 10th gen 10900K, aorus z490 master, 64 gig memory, 2 1tb nvme drives and 10 terabytes of spinners (WD black). So no, not P4, lol. My desktop may be upgraded, but I'm keeping my MR moniker.

 

[MacManTexas56]

The problem is not the price, people pay a lot of money for Apple products all the time. The problem is the features of the device itself and they are lacking.

This action by Apple is another reason I have concern they cannot be trusted. I do not own a HomePod. I put off purchasing one to see how it played out. It appears that was the correct decision.

When Apple messed up the AppleTV and destroyed the Airport it became clear Apple does not have a coherent strategy in the home entertainment and home automation space. HomeKit is an absolute mess.

Sorry to be so negative here. I am one of those "all in" people with the Apple ecosystem but Apple has made some major mistakes here. I have seen the comments about poor sales. Sometimes, keeping a product that does not sell well actually supports the sale of other products. If HomePod was defective and lacking sales, that would be another story. The purpose of Aperture was not to sell Aperture, it was to sell Macs. Thank goodness there is still someone inside Apple with enough influence to defending Final Cut Pro from the axe or that would be gone too.

Final words for all people out there using Siri. Turn it off. It cannot be trusted and you need to heed this warning. My personal experience is making random disparaging comments in my household about a certain controversial former president. Siri literally admonished me for the comment. Not once, but on at least three occassions. I have turned it off and will never turn it back on.

the problem for a lot of people is the price though. if it's $299 and you want whole house audio, unless you're super high tech type person who doesn't blink at prices, then no one is going to pay $299 per room to have audio in it. You say it's not about the price, but you yourself didn't want to pay the prices to invest in it. How many other people didn't want to do the same? How many people only paid for 1 HomePod bc they didn't want to pay $299 per room?

The HomePod mini is only $99 and they are flying off the shelves. Do you think they are flying off the shelves bc of the great audio sound? Majority of consumers want to pay cheap prices for certain things and audio is one of those things. Why pay $299 to get a HomePod when you can get an echo dot for $50 and you really don't care about the quality.

Price is a major factor in this and that's why the HomePod mini is so successful.

 

[I7guy]

They don't support Airplay on anything older than 2012 so by current standards, no.

The point is not supporting, the point is deprecating. As long as Apple doesn't deprecate Airplay 2, the homepod will work. Did Apple deprecate the OG Airplay protocol?

 

[citysnaps]

Are you going to post back in this thread when you are wrong on March 23rd? Doubt it.

How about you?

 

[I7guy]

[...]

Yes I read it, it was nonsense.

As your reply is the same type of nonsense.

Such contentiousness on an opinion that the homepod will not cease to function in the near term and probably will be viable in the long term, tsk, tsk.

 

[MacCheetah3]

This failure feels like they’re pulling back from the Smart Home space. What’s left is an outdated ATV and a mini speaker I cannot trust to be discontinued as well down the line.

An outdated TV... Huh.

Audio Formats​

• HE-AAC (V1), AAC (up to 320 Kbps), protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (up to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Apple Lossless, FLAC, AIFF, and WAV; AC-3 (Dolby Digital 5.1), E-AC-3 (Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround sound), and Dolby Atmos

Video Formats​

• ...
• HEVC Dolby Vision (Profile 5)/HDR10 (Main 10 profile) up to 2160p
• ...

Apple TV 4K (1st generation) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

support.apple.com

Back to the HomePod... Indeed, who knows how long the HomePod mini will stick around -- or any product for that matter? As long as it sells well (enough) is the vague answer. Also, it's not impossible for Apple to try again in the future. As some have already mentioned, despite the iPod Hi-Fi having a similar life, Apple came up with the HomePod.

 

[Doomtomb]

The pricing was way off compared to the competition.

 

[VanNess]

For me price wasn’t the issue, it was connectivity or lack thereof. I remember hearing one in an Apple store and was pretty impressed especially when an Apple store is exactly a preferred environment for auditioning speakers. Ultimately when I started to realize that I had more things that I couldn’t connect to it than I could it was a no go.

It’s a crowded market although the HomePod had a pretty unique speaker design. Unfortunately similar stand alone speakers that are popular from the likes of Sonos, Klipsh, Marshall et al have all of the connectivity that anyone could need albeit mostly unremarkable sound at best and you can pretty much forget about any notion of stereo separation from a single box speaker. All in all in my book they are a waste of money.

Ultimately I ended up with a HK Aura studio 3. Like the HomePod it ain’t cheap but it has surprisingly room filling sound for its size, more than enough output, copious low end response and whatever voodoo it uses for stereo sound is very good - it’s soundstage occurs well beyond the speaker enclosure and I never think that I could use another just for stereo separation. And it will play anything that comes it’s way via Bluetooth or analog mini jack so obsolescence isn’t going to be an issue. Not a replacement for my preferred stereo rig but perfectly fine as an alternative for any other room.

 

[ouimetnick]

I had a Pioneer (I think) gorgeous projection tv for 25 years. A Luxman receiver for 20 years. An Pioneer sx-1250, which I threw out after 20 years, that I see is selling on ebay for thousands of dollars. So is it within the realm of possibility a homepod could last for 20 years?

How could you.. That is one of the TOTL Pioneer silver faced receivers from the 1970s. The SX-1080 is the highest end they made I think. They are all well sought after on the audio forums I frequent.

They don't make them like that anymore.

 

[CJ Dorschel]

Very disappointed by this decision. Update it and lower the price. I love my HomePods.

 

[I7guy]

How could you.. That is one of the TOTL Pioneer silver faced receivers from the 1970s. The SX-1080 is the highest end they made I think. They are all well sought after on the audio forums I frequent.

They don't make them like that anymore.

I know. I can’t believe I just brought it to recycling. The dang thing was huge and has watts to spare.

 

[nrvna76]

The google home Max was already discontinued as well. The HomePod was never meant to compete with an echo dot.. the only comparable speaker left is the echo studio, I’m not sure how well that sells. My money is on a new speaker that isn’t called just ‘HomePod’.

 

[npmacuser5]

An outdated TV... Huh.

Apple TV 4K (1st generation) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

support.apple.com

Back to the HomePod... Indeed, who knows how long the HomePod mini will stick around -- or any product for that matter? As long as it sells well (enough) is the vague answer. Also, it's not impossible for Apple to try again in the future. As some have already mentioned, despite the iPod Hi-Fi having a similar life, Apple came up with the HomePod.

Why did it take Apple four years to build a mini-me the question? Especially when they were focusing resources towards the mini.

 

[James Godfrey]

I think we could potentially see a max or pro HomePod...

It does make sense for a couple of reasons:

1. firstly, why didn’t apple just replace the HomePod with the HomePod mini and be done with the HomePod at that point?

2. why add support for Dolby atmos, stereo pairing and home theatre then suddenly throw the towel in.

Now the question is why discontinue the product before releasing a refresh, I suspect it’s purely logistical, I can imagine there being quite a bit of excess stock which would just end up on landfill upon release of a 2nd Gen, so it’s likely better for Apple to sell what stock they got before planning to release a new version.

Now we have a few ways apple could potentially go with this...

1. They rename HomePod mini to just HomePod 2 upon release of the second gen of the mini (which could potentially be larger and louder with a bit of a price bump to $150), this will be the nail in the OG HomePods coffin unfortunately.

This will be the safest option for apple.

2. They continue with the HomePod mini eventually releasing a HomePod max or pro, similar to how we have MacBook Air, MacBook Pro but no MacBook at this point, only problem with this is that unless the Max or Pro model of the HomePod has some ground breaking features it will likely flop yet again.

This is probably a very risky option for apple.

3. Another possibility which has sprung to mind is possibly a merger of Apple TV and the HomePod at some point... where Apple TV is actually built into the speaker itself... becoming a brand new product line...

 

[npmacuser5]

How could you.. That is one of the TOTL Pioneer silver faced receivers from the 1970s. The SX-1080 is the highest end they made I think. They are all well sought after on the audio forums I frequent.

They don't make them like that anymore.

An amp and wires starting to look attractive again. The total lack of standards could drive one bat **** crazy. 😜

 

[jk1221]

Every Apple product I have owned has had lengthy software support well after it was discontinued, so why should the HomePod be any different.

The concepts are not equivocal at all.

An old iPod can function because it doesn't need a companion device that relies on supported protocols. An iPod can function all on its own if the hardware works.

IF Homepod had audio jacks or Bluetooth then I would agree. There is nothing stopping it from working forever. But once Apple changes their APIs etc., and they will at some point near or far, then the Homepod is a paperweight.

It has no other function without communicating with another device over a specific protocol that may be changed in 6 months or 6 years. No one knows.

This is why I would NEVER buy a companion product that doesn't use open standards. Hell, even Airpods are just Bluetooth. It's not like if you sell your iPhone you cant use them. Apple got this flat out wrong having no jacks or regular Bluetooth connectivity.

It was a never buy from me, even if Siri was even halfway decent. Which even Rene Riche, Apple fanboi #1, just admitted in a new video today on this topic was way, way behind.

 

[Deguello]

IMO, the mini sounds good enough to get weather forecasts and reminders, or to move out to the garage or patio to have some music while cleaning or grilling, or whatever.

If I want to listen to something that sounds really good, or for home theater, I have actual sound systems set up for that.

 

[gnasher729]

Hopefully we'll see them go on sale at some point from third parties, I'd love one more.

I had a look on eBay. Nothing less than full price, and some truly idiotic offers (mini for £149, HomePod for £399). Someone actually offering a HomePod for £999.

 

[WitchDoktor]

Well, I always thought the OG HP sounded great though I could never quite justify the $300 price tag per drop for a multi-room system. I passed on Denon HEOS too, FWIW. Anyway, I did get 3 HPMs last month and I find I rely on them regularly, especially as I start to set up HomeKit accessories. They sound just fine to me. Siri works very well for my needs, but then I'm not asking it random questions either. On the other hand, I'm confident that Apple respects my privacy so if there are any AI compromises then I'll happily accept them.

I wonder if the HP came out to get Apple early adopters into the idea of a smart speaker that fits seamlessly within the ecosystem. Now that tech is at a place where acceptable performance (though not at par with the HP) can be had at a lower price point, it seems valid to discontinue a $300 HP as a loss leader.

I'm pretty happy in the walled garden, so this may color my impressions. Just a regular guy, listening to the Classical Chill playlist on AM and finding that the HPM is doing a good job with it.

I'm looking forward to seeing Apple's plan for this space

 

[SirAnthonyHopkins]

Final words for all people out there using Siri. Turn it off. It cannot be trusted and you need to heed this warning. My personal experience is making random disparaging comments in my household about a certain controversial former president. Siri literally admonished me for the comment. Not once, but on at least three occassions.

this obviously never happened.

 

[hagar]

An outdated TV... Huh.

Apple TV 4K (1st generation) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

support.apple.com

Back to the HomePod... Indeed, who knows how long the HomePod mini will stick around -- or any product for that matter? As long as it sells well (enough) is the vague answer. Also, it's not impossible for Apple to try again in the future. As some have already mentioned, despite the iPod Hi-Fi having a similar life, Apple came up with the HomePod.

You’re right that it plays all current video and audio formats, but it doesn’t bring anything compelling to the table for its price tag. ATV has never been a runaway success, its App Store largely failed and its future is uncertain. Maybe Apple will try again one more time with some unique new features (gaming, smart home, ...) but if the productcannot do anything more than a Chromecast that costs 1/10th of the price, I’m not very optimistic.

I do hope they’ll find a way to make a dent in the Smart Home market somehow!