Apple Remains 'Largely Absent' in U.S. Smart Speaker Market

[sracer]

Honestly don't get it now, as HP Mini is cheap.

Yes, Siri's still missing logical operators - AND, IF, OR. That's my biggest complain, but what else???!

In 95% of cases I use Siri just to turn on/off lights, add reminders/timers a of course play music.

The HP Mini may be cheap in comparison to the full-size HP, but not when compared to the competition.

Siri continues to be problematic and lag behind Alexa and Google Assistant. If the "smart" part of a smart speaker isn't so smart, then that reduces the value of it.

The HP is very restrictive in terms of what devices can connect to it for input. It isn't a worthwhile option for people whose primary device for media access isn't an iOS-based device.

 

[Larsvonhier]

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) have you tried one of the HomePods lately? I'm baffled how well the speech recognition is with them, even talking against music, background noise or even addressing them from adjacent rooms. Not comparable to iPhone etc.
2) Really? Sonos? Not a good example of product continuity. Rendered existing products unusable.

 

[Premium1]

Probably doesn't help that 1. The speaker they released at first was super high-end priced with limited functionality, then they discontinued it, and 2. The software was literally frying the speakers. Doesn't exactly make people super confident in buying the product.

 

[donguevas]

I got rid of my Homepod's because of Siri and the lack of versatility. I went with 4th gen Echos.

A good example is the crippled bluetooth. In my bedroom I have a an Imac that is hooked to 50 inch TV. 50 INCH tv has a cable box hooked to it.

I used to have nice surround sound system but wanted to get rid of the wires but HomePods were out because:

1:They only use Airplay and even being in the same room Airplay would lag with my OG homepod.
2.Crippled BlueTooth - If I am watching TV I could not stream to them - but I can stream to the Echo from the Mac, TV, and any other blue tooth enabled device
3.3.5 jack on the back (the old surround system is in my garage with an echo plugged into it)
4.Alexa is much better than Siri at understanding, and even mostly understands my wife even though she has a fairly thick accent.

And of course the price point. There is not much different in sound than the Mini's. Plus, Alex'a skills far outweigh anything Siri can do.

 

[B/D]

Apple could easily double or triple the HomePod’s market share by adding Spotify support. Until then, it’s not for me.

At this point is up to Spotify to do so (and Amazon Music, and Youtube Music). Deezer and Pandora already have native support on the homepods (¡deezer have even lossless audio support on apple speakers, which apple music still does not have!)

 

[4jasontv]

I got rid of my Homepod's because of Siri and the lack of versatility. I went with 4th gen Echos.

I got some 3rd gen echo's free when I bought something else, probably hue bulbs. Now, I don't like voice assistants, but I can see the appeal of the Echo. It's dirt cheap and while you could use the built-in speaker the fact that it can be hooked into an existing system makes it much more, as you say, versatile.

Apple has a lot of promise with the homepod, but they are trying to do too much with it without any one of those things being unique.

 

[4jasontv]

At this point is up to Spotify to do so (and Amazon Music, and Youtube Music). Deezer and Pandora already have native support on the homepods (¡deezer have even lossless audio support on apple speakers, which apple music still does not have!)

Apple Music has lossless audio. Are you saying Apple Music on the HomePod doesn't support it?

 

[Tagbert]

As others have mentioned here, using Siri on the HomePod often conflicts with Siri on other devices. If I want to play something on my phone, I have to whisper to it otherwise the HomePod in another room with the door closed will pick it up and start playing. I have disabled "hey Siri" for all devices except iPhone and HomePod. If I didn't I would never know which device would respond. If they all could do the same things it might work but they don't.

I wish we could customize the trigger phrase so we could target specific devices. At least let me say "Hey HomePod", "Hey watch", "Hey iPad" to narrow the field a little.

 

[B/D]

Apple Music has lossless audio. Are you saying Apple Music on the HomePod doesn't support it?

Not yet. It will arrive, it seems, with Homepod OS 15.

 

[Maconplasma]

Discontinue a $299 speaker to introduce $550 headphones…..also Siri is meh. Sometimes great, other times barely works. That inconsistency has pushed millions away from remembering to use Siri for many things. Now after ten years we will soon get on device processing for the most basic things……took TEN ***** YEARS!!

Personally I love my HomePod for music, it sounds incredible especially given it’s size. But apple didnt learn its lesson from that other $349 speaker no one bought. It should’ve been 299 to start and fall to 199 over time and make it a full product lineup. Make a “travel pod ” for on the go, etc etc. Also the homepod mini naming makes zero sense now.

Lots of untapped potential for the HomePod lineup if they bothered.

I just love how you purposely left out that Apple discontinued a $299 speaker and introduced a $99 one. 🙄

 

[freedomlinux]

I have a friend who asks Google random questions like "Who is Joey's mom on Friends?" and it would reply with "According to the website blahblahblah.com..." and read the answer. I'm trying to understand, why does it need recordings of people in order to be able to provide an answer like that? Is it not possible to parse the sentence anyway?

Most likely, they take a sample of the simple requests anyway to check for quality:

• Is the speech recognition correct
• Was the question parsed correctly & understood
• Does the answer make sense
• Was there a similar (failed) request before this / does the user sound frustrated

 

[Maconplasma]

Apple have essentially infinite money. They really need to fix this.

So that’s the answer huh, money? Money doesn’t fix everything. Quite a shortsighted view on reality. SMH.

 

[sunny5]

Siri sucks and useless. Both Amazon and Google have better AI assistance and Apple is not able to compete with them.

 

[LordVic]

I'm not sure many of us are surprised that the HomePod wasn't going to fare well. it is essentially the iPod HiFi all over again.

For some reason, Apple didn't learn that you cannot vertically integrate a speaker system into being tied exclusively to one set of services and providers. Speakers are too generic a thing for that, with way too many options. Even now in the smart speaker space.

Things that most of us probably knew from day 1 was going to really hurt this product:

1. No Bluetooth
2. No Aux Input, of any sort.
3. Only supporting Apple Music/Siri on launch (I believe spotify is now supported)
4. Only supporting iOS device audio playback. no mixed environments
5. Significantly price premium. if All a user wanted was a home automation speaker, there are far better options available for significantly cheaper.
6. SIRI has problems and is the ONLY supported Voice assistance. Which limits usability to only iOS / Siri supported audio controls.

So while the tech in the HomePod for audio maybe top shelf. And they do sound fan-****ing-tastic

That is all secondary when they're so limited in what they support and can do.

Honestly, I'm pretty sure the bulk of users on this forum were smart enough to see the writing on the wall on this product before Tim Cook was.

 

[LordVic]

I just love how you purposely left out that Apple discontinued a $299 speaker and introduced a $99 one. 🙄

The Mini should have been launched alongside the main device. Mini brings in the users, the larger one is for those users who decides to stick in the ecosystem and are happy with it

Apple launhing only the $299 version is a very VERY expensive "trial"

 

[MacNewsOverload]

Forget the speaker/all-in-one device. Just give me a $29 AirPlay2 adapter with audio out so I can set up whole home audio with my own equipment, mounted speakers, etc. Phones, iPads, ATV and Macs control the music source already. Of course I have a gaggle of Airport Express routers doing that now, but Apple is really missing a huge, instant way to capture the home audio market.

 

[progx]

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).

For the most part, nothing for me. I occasionally use Siri, but will not have Alexa or Google listening to me. I doubt Apple is going to take this market away from Amazon.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Pardon my tone here everyone but if Apple really gives a crap about services, they have to rethink this strategy. Make a tiny, medium and huge smart speaker and sell them at a small loss of break even and include 6 months of Apple Music with every speaker sold. Apple needs people to fill heir entire homes with these things. Bring Siri to every room of the house for $29, $49 and $99 respectively and do a huge marketing push about hand off and airplay 2 and intercom and get one in every single bedroom / living room in the country. People are spending $1500 on iPhones then asking Alexa to play music. It's absurd.

HomePod failed @ $299. It would not have failed at $99. Everyone I know would own 2-3 of them by now.

You forgot the most important part - fix the bugs and omissions.

I've only ever gotten intercom to work once.
Siri doesn't quite understand how to respond to my wife (e.g. permission problems, which don't exist with Siri on her watch).
I still can't ask her to play a playlist on Spotify.
Airplay drops off far too frequently
Siri doesn't always understand me or my wife
Siri commands are lacking, to put it mildly.

 

[progx]

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).

It doesn't matter much to me personally. I'm stating why I refuse to use such devices since Amazon has been found with recordings of people in their homes. Also, the hacking situation with Amazon is really creepy. There are quite a few videos on that one.

To me, if Apple missed the market, I doubt this will come back to haunt them since the ship of it is riddled with holes for privacy.

 

[honglong1976]

That’s because Siri isn’t very smart compared to Google and Alexa.

I think it’s more to do with Apple not having a cheaper smart speaker, when Google was giving the Mini away for free with so many promotions and Amazon having a bargain bucket speaker. Apple only has the expensive HomePod.

Another reason is marketing. Google is everywhere in the shops I visit, they have a stand, you can test the speaker, they are in the good location. I haven’t seen any Apple speakers anywhere.

The HomePod Mini should help, eventually. The voice quality is superb, sound is better than any Google Home or Amazon Echo I have used. Alexa, well it always sounded very digital and distorted for me. Only Echo, Echo 3rd gen, Echo 4th gen and studio.

Apple were late to the market, and to be honest, it may be hard to catch up.

 

[MJaP]

I have a mix of HomePod and Google Home speakers in my home. I was planning to fully migrate to Apple, but Google Assistant is so superior to Siri it's not even close so I just couldn't switch, and I find myself always asking Google rather than Siri when I want to find something out, so much so I'm thinking of ebaying my HomePods.

 

[adamjackson]

You forgot the most important part - fix the bugs and omissions.

I've only ever gotten intercom to work once.
Siri doesn't quite understand how to respond to my wife (e.g. permission problems, which don't exist with Siri on her watch).
I still can't ask her to play a playlist on Spotify.
Airplay drops off far too frequently
Siri doesn't always understand me or my wife
Siri commands are lacking, to put it mildly.

I don't have any of these issues. There are people who do and I'm sorry.

 

[jmgregory1]

I think that part of the reason Apple hasn’t done better with the smart speaker market, is that they’re late to the game and most people aren’t going to buy a mini to replace an already existing Amazon or Google smart speaker. If it weren’t for my own desire to better control our privacy, my family would still be using the Google speaker we had. I wish Apple would expand the offering to include more options for speakers, subwoofers, bookshelf, tv, etc. that all worked together. Listening to music and podcasts, to us, is more important than using speakers as a smart device to ask questions on. We all have our Watches and iPhones on us all the time, so the smart aspect is of less importance.

 

[honglong1976]

Forget the speaker/all-in-one device. Just give me a $29 AirPlay2 adapter with audio out so I can set up whole home audio with my own equipment, mounted speakers, etc. Phones, iPads, ATV and Macs control the music source already. Of course I have a gaggle of Airport Express routers doing that now, but Apple is really missing a huge, instant way to capture the home audio market.

I stream my Apple TV to a Bose Solo Tv 15 Series II via an Airport Express and Airplay 2. Sounds great! I have two HomePod minis and as a stereo pair they sound great, but watch films via VLC, or FE explorer, the sound drops and the video freezes after 15 mins. With the Bose films work perfect.

Maybe with TVos15 they will work better. But for now, it’s Bose for me.

 

[steevn]

Speaker quality for music playback is more of a treat than an actual selling point, I would guess, for most people who just want the core functionality.

At $99 the mini is surprisingly good value relative to Apple's other products at the same price, but it's not going to take the market by storm.

I think this is one of Apples most overlooked aspects personally. Sound quality really is a treat rather than a selling point for most people, especially those who already have smart speakers/products.

The high or higher end audio listeners and smart speaker users are two separate groups, not similar and not really looking for the same thing.

Sonos at least figured this part out with their Five series speakers by not including voice assistant but having Airplay, I don’t know why Apple didn’t take anything from that.

Their other hugely obvious problem was putting out a $300+ and $100 speaker years after Amazon and Google have practically been giving their versions away like that would be remotely enticing.