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Apple Remains 'Largely Absent' in U.S. Smart Speaker Market
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I have an actual sound system for when I want to listen to music with some degree of quality, though.
I have a HomePod mini because I wanted to try it out, but it sounds weak next to even my audio setup in my bedroom, let alone the main system.
Lots of criticism for Siri vs. Amazon. I have a couple HomePods and they do what I need them to. What am I missing out on? Any examples of what Amazon can do better?
Wrong…..before Siri the iPhone had something called voice control that did everything ON DEVICE…..simple things like play and pause. There’s never been any logical reason why simple things like making a phone call, raising the volume and play and pause ever needed to go up to the cloud (Other than tracking how users query commands)
From Apple circa 2009
I agree with you about HomeKit, but doubt Matter will matter. The Amazon and Google ecosystems will still be cloud-based, as they already are with the Hue Hub (which uses Zigbee and has its own local API). Though I think both have limited local-support for when internet is down for certain things. Its this cloud-based philosophy that sunk Smartthings for me, especially when it was already a zigbee and z-wave hub, which is ostensibly local in nature... only to have to go to internet to process a command... so stupid.
Apple can't even get spellcheck to work well, they are lost when it comes to AI applications. Hardware, yeah, they get it. Software and services good luck.
As I'm in the Apple ecosystem for the majority of their devices apart from any Mac computers as my computers are only self built Windows PCs I have to go with the homepod as I don't want multiple assistants. I actually love the homepod mini, never liked the larger one mainly because of its price as it was just too high for a smart speaker and if you wanted a few of them the price would slowly get out of hand.
The mini is priced just right, for its tiny size the sound quality is pretty impressive, I have 5 of them placed around the house and they are great for my usage. "Hey Siri" works a good 95% of time for me, my main use is for controlling all of my Phillips Hue lights and accessories and for that it works brilliantly.
The mini is priced just right, for its tiny size the sound quality is pretty impressive, I have 5 of them placed around the house and they are great for my usage. "Hey Siri" works a good 95% of time for me, my main use is for controlling all of my Phillips Hue lights and accessories and for that it works brilliantly.
That's just it. The entire idea behind these devices is that you'll put them all over your house. At this point, I can barely count the number of Alexa devices we have hiding behind plants and what not. At $20-ish (a typical sale price for basic Alexa devices), it's not too hard to justifying buying ten or twenty. Very few people would take the same approach with Apple's alternative.
Apple's mini HomePod is also more awkwardly shaped (so harder to hide behind TV's, nightstands, etc.) and often a poorer performer than Alexa or Google Home. I'm sure it's a good device to some, but it's a complete miss for what I (and, I believe, most people) are looking to accomplish with smart devices like these.
This would be a way more meaningfully study if they took out all of the crap speakers and put them into their own category. The crappy echos and google hockey pucks don't really qualify as speakers the same way that the better sounding devices do. It is not hard to understand that Sonos, Apple, the better class Amazon, the better class Googles, and all the rest which are actually speakers are a small subset of the market included in the study and therefore the study is just garbage.
The main issue isn't Siri not understanding your voice, but the lack of integrations (e.g. Alexa skills), compound statements ("and") or not doing thing cross device - e.g. if Siri answers from Apple Watch, it won't hand over the task to the phone if the watch is unable to handle the request (e.g. start a playlist on an airplay device).
My experience with AppleTVs and homepods was so bad I replaced it with a sound bar and have the HomePod for music in another room
That’s not the smart assistant. That is back end stuff Google has been building for years and translates to the assistant. Apple would have to build a search engine or the back end OR pay Google to use that info and backend which they are not going to do.
I feel like Apple isn’t even trying. They put out a couple of models for the die hard Apple fans. Otherwise it isn’t something that they seem to be heavily invested in.
Fair comparison to the 99 cents for iCloud storage as well although I'd argue based on most recent earning statement that it appears 1 out of 5 iPhone owners now pay for iCloud storage at minimum. It should be 50% but whatever.
To the smart speaker argument. Yes Alexa is better than Siri and had a head start because you could get one for $29 or free in certain promotions. I would like Tim and company to strategically inside apple take on Alexa head on. Leverage your massive size and make 'speaker in every iPhone owner's home' a 2022 strategy and use price, marketing and gimmicks like "free home pod with an iPhone purchase" to make it happen.
I really like my HomePod Mini and I’m thinking about getting a few more. The HomePod Mini seems much more aligned with the market than the original HomePod.
As someone who is getting into HomeKit devices, the HomePod is the right choice for me. Plus I trust Apple more with my privacy than I do Amazon or Google.
I’m really surprised to see Google with such a large slice since I’ve never see anything but Amazon smart speakers out in the wild.
As someone who is getting into HomeKit devices, the HomePod is the right choice for me. Plus I trust Apple more with my privacy than I do Amazon or Google.
I’m really surprised to see Google with such a large slice since I’ve never see anything but Amazon smart speakers out in the wild.
It really doesn't matter if Siri is more secure than the alternatives, because Siri doesn't work nearly as well as the alternatives. The choice for most is either Alexa/Google, or nothing (Siri is a non-functional alternative).
Oh, ok. As long as you’re not saying it’s better in terms of audio quality.I've had both. I'm talking in terms of value. My echo dots (the ball ones), cost me just €30 each. A HomePod Mini is three times that cost yet, 100x more stupid in terms of functionality.
The sound quality is very close.
Amazon Echo Dot (4th Generation) review
The fourth-gen Echo Dot is an improved performer all roundwww.whathifi.com
I mean millions are listening to badly compressed streamed MP3’s happily and I’m glad they enjoy it!Simple things like play and pause. Complex things required an actual computer OR required you to send the commands to an actual computer. That technology progresses over time shouldn’t surprise anyone. However, I can understand how some folks think that since the phone they’re holding today roughly LOOKS like the phone they were holding 10 years ago, it’s pretty much the same, why couldn’t they do this back then??
For me, the biggest issue is that in a stereo setup I want control over all the components. I want to be able to replace the speaker, AMP, or DAC to get exactly the sound I want. These all-in-one solutions are always compromised all the way down the line, and it doesn't matter if Apple is the best at making something I don't want.
Also, people already talk too much.
Now, if Apple made speakers that could be mounted anywhere and then ping each other to calibrate atmos. I'd like the option to move speakers to fit changing multi-user experiences and have it recalibrated on its own.
Also, people already talk too much.
Now, if Apple made speakers that could be mounted anywhere and then ping each other to calibrate atmos. I'd like the option to move speakers to fit changing multi-user experiences and have it recalibrated on its own.
I think Apple has completed missed the market here. In my experience, there are two basic segments of this market.
1) Cheap AI assistant that can play music - This is for locations where audio quality isn't a priority, and voice recognition is a priority. Think of the kitchen. The audio quality only needs to be good enough to hear above the sound of you cooking dinner, but you definitely need the AI assistant to hear you and get the cooking timer right. Apple fails here completely, their products are too expensive, Siri hasn't been great in the past, and if people are price conscious they definitely don't want to be locked into the Apple ecosystem.
2) High-end speaker that happens to have AI. This is a much smaller segment of the market. But Sonos has been doing this end of the market for years, allows you to pick your voice assistant (Google or Alexa), doesn't randomly discontinue their products, and doesn't end-of-life their products nearly as fast as Apple. There are also Google/Amazon options here. Unless I want to remain completely locked into the Apple ecosystem, why would I go with the Apple product? With Sonos it's 1) cheaper, 2) can pick between two functional AI assistants (Google or Alexa) rather then being locked into a poorly functional assistant (Siri), 3) Has a track record with these products, 4) supports all music provides (Spotify!).
I would never recommend an Apple speaker to anybody. And this is somebody who's been using the iPhone since the 3G, and has 4 Mac's.
1) Cheap AI assistant that can play music - This is for locations where audio quality isn't a priority, and voice recognition is a priority. Think of the kitchen. The audio quality only needs to be good enough to hear above the sound of you cooking dinner, but you definitely need the AI assistant to hear you and get the cooking timer right. Apple fails here completely, their products are too expensive, Siri hasn't been great in the past, and if people are price conscious they definitely don't want to be locked into the Apple ecosystem.
2) High-end speaker that happens to have AI. This is a much smaller segment of the market. But Sonos has been doing this end of the market for years, allows you to pick your voice assistant (Google or Alexa), doesn't randomly discontinue their products, and doesn't end-of-life their products nearly as fast as Apple. There are also Google/Amazon options here. Unless I want to remain completely locked into the Apple ecosystem, why would I go with the Apple product? With Sonos it's 1) cheaper, 2) can pick between two functional AI assistants (Google or Alexa) rather then being locked into a poorly functional assistant (Siri), 3) Has a track record with these products, 4) supports all music provides (Spotify!).
I would never recommend an Apple speaker to anybody. And this is somebody who's been using the iPhone since the 3G, and has 4 Mac's.
Not quite so any more: Apple not only processes the remaining non-opt-outer´s user data via differential privacy methods, but has set up KI training data generators that prove much more powerful than "real" random data.
And they seem well prepared one data privacy laws come into place - which could be a bitter surprise for the other "data crake" companies.
Siri 2021 is not the one of iPhone 4S times any more...
The podcast experience on my HPMini is abysmal. From not finding the podcast (yet, asking the same on the iPhone is successful), to playing older episodes when a new one is clearly available, to lumping radio streams with podcasts (Hey Siri, play NBC News Radio) starts playing NBS sports podcast. Ask it again, same way, gives correct stream.
I assumed that moving it to the cloud allowed it to capitalize on the install base to improve itself. Because if the next-track command didn't work for you now it wouldn't work better next time either. With the cloud simply asking again notifies the system it may have made a mistake and flags your request for review.
Today voice commands are still terrible, but they are better than they were. Though I would be happy if they moved Siri to the Assisted Services menu and disabled her by default.
There’s also the “given away free with purchase” market which is much like the “buy one get one free” market. Apple will NEVER have a chance in those
Just like with Chromebook, just like with Smart TV’s the information those companies are able to obtain from those devices is so valuable, it offsets a large part of the cost. Over years, the information they obtain is WELL worth giving the hardware away for free!