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

[ouimetnick]

I have to say I wouldn’t be able to discern between the two either. If someone pointed at me and said “light” or “lights”, I’d likely provide an answer VERY close to what Siri would. I’d guess it would be the same for a ten year old, too.

If I say to Siri

“Hey Siri, turn on the light” she turns on both the actual light that I named “Light” and the light strip named “LED Strip”
Your argument would be valid if the LED strip was named “LED Light Strip” or something, but it isn’t. It’s a dumb led strip connected to a Meross smart plug. The “Light” is an actual Nanoleaf smart bulb.

A 10 year old knows better, Siri doesn’t. Either my 8 year old cousin is much smarter than most 10 year olds or Siri is dumb as ****.

 

[RoboCop001]

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.

Got it. That makes sense. But theoretically, could they have Siri parse the request, do a search, and perhaps read whatever the first result is? Maybe they could define acceptable websites for responses, so it would only read from that list. I think if it says "According to..." then they're off the hook for accurate info? lol

Currently if you ask Siri something on your iPhone, it will say something like "Here's what I found on the web." so it certainly does a search. I guess the rest of it is deciding what text Siri would read next, or to decide not to read it based on some qualifiers that aren't met.

 

[Black Magic]

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

Not so sure about this comment. As a speaker, it blows away anything the competition has to offer as the sound quality is top notch. On the assistant side, it's actually pretty good for those that use it frequently. I think the problem is folks formed an opinion about Siri years ago and stopped using it even though Siri has been improving every year. From my perspective, it covers all the basics you would need in a household and then some. Examples:

1. I wanted to know an actors age. Check.
2. Weather. Check.
3. Send and read messages. Check.
3. Game time/channel, score, record. Check.
4. Math equations. Check.
5. Making and receiving calls. Check.
6. Playing music and adjusting volume. Check.
7. Nearby stores, restaurants with the addition of calling. Check.
8. Is a specific movie playing in the theaters? Check.


I can go on and on but again you get the point.

 

[LordVic]

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.

Was trying to change as well, and give Siri a try... But it's too limited. ESPECIALLY with home automation

I've tried moving over to Homekit.

To put it bluntly. Siri and Homekit feel like it was released in 2010 and never updated. HomeKit is laggy mess of low support and really crappy design (being unable to control a single rooms lights together without creating a "scene" is just ****ing stupid)

then it's just laggy. Despite having TWO iPads acting as home hub, I have never ever gotten my lights to respond quickly. HomeKit controls on my watch never work unless I hold my wrist up on the homekit app for 40+ seconds for it to "update"

And asking Siri to turn off the lights always results in it asking to confirm what I want t do before it does it because for some reason it's just stupid.

"Hey Siri, turn off LordVics Lights"

"ok"

no lights turn off.

or

"Did you mean LordVics Lights"?

given this, I will likely be plugging in my Google speakers again. Siri + Homekit for home automation is just a horrible experience in comparison to what both Google and Alexa can manage.

 

[LordVic]

Not so sure about this comment. As a speaker, it blows away anything the competition has to offer as the sound quality is top notch. On the assistant side, it's actually pretty good for those that use it frequently. I think the problem is folks formed an opinion about Siri years ago and stopped using it even though Siri has been improving every year. From my perspective, it covers all the basics you would need in a household and then some. Examples:

1. I wanted to know an actors age. Check.
2. Weather. Check.
3. Send and read messages. Check.
3. Game time/channel, score, record. Check.
4. Math equations. Check.
5. Making and receiving calls. Check.
6. Playing music and adjusting volume. Check.
7. Nearby stores, restaurants with the addition of calling. Check.
8. Is a specific movie playing in the theaters? Check.


I can go on and on but again you get the point.

Meanwhile, I cannot get Siri to do all of that consistently. must be my Canadian Accent.

 

[MJaP]

I read an article from the original developers of Siri that Apple acquired that Siri was never designed to do the things Apple has subsequently tried to make it do, it was only ever designed to be a simple assistant, and to make Siri an effective alternative to Google or Alexa they would need to rip out the all base code and start over from scratch.

The founders of Siri have since moved on, formed a new company, and developed an new assistant called Viv.

 

[steevn]

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

This has always been annoying to me too because when I used Google it would take additional requests.

Another thing I really want changed is the ability to turn off answering to my commands.

When I say turn off the lights or adjust the thermostat just do it and shut up lol, I don’t need a recap I can see if it was completed or not.

 

[Black Magic]

This has always been annoying to me too because when I used Google it would take additional requests.

Another thing I really want changed is the ability to turn off answering to my commands.

When I say turn off the lights or adjust the thermostat just do it and shut up lol, I don’t need a recap I can see if it was completed or not.

I'd like a confirmation like "Done" or "I'm having a problem."

 

[AlexESP]

Sometimes it seems like the Apple some of you know is not the same I do.

Obviously Apple won’t (and shouldn’t) sell a dummy box at a loss for $29. That’s not compatible with their strategy. I think the answer to this is that Apple won’t be able to win this market, because they can’t provide something significantly better at a higher price. It’s a cost-driven device where technology doesn’t really matter. The same with TV. AirPods Max make much more sense, and will do better, than these attempts.

 

[skitidetdu]

Apple isn't even selling the home pod in Sweden since the software doesn't have Siri in Swedish. I dont get this...Siri is available on the Mac, phone and Pad in Swedish. But not on the Home Pod.

 

[garrick2007]

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.

Well sound quality and output isnt anywhere close to the full size, it does not have the fullness in any way, even the lower mid range lacks. Its also so small its hard to take seriously. General dont buy HomePods for Siri capabilities they care about the sound quality so if they can get better with a $60 portable jbl speaker... why not.

 

[name99]

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

Maybe so.
But I think an additional important factor is that when it comes to HomePod, Apple simply CANNOT look beyond music.
There is a world of alternative audio – lectures, podcasts, audiobooks – and HomePod is CRAP at every one of them.
- no buttons for rapid skipping fwd/bwd 15 or seconds
- no attempt to maintain connection for longer than the current listening session
- no attempt to restore a connection after wifi goes down, power goes down, HomePod is rebooted, etc

Spoken word audio may be a minority taste; but it becomes more important the wealthier consumers get. And not only is Apple beyond incompetent in this space, it's like they don't even want to become competent. They're so desperately trying to be hip (FFS Eddie Cue, you're 56! You shouldn't have to be pretending that you're best friends with whoever is the newest cool 20-something musician!) that they couldn't be bothered to actually be useful.

 

[jimbobb24]

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

This message gets repeated non stop. But anyone can go watch YouTube videos of these compared and Google is the best but Apple is not that different compared to others. Unless your only use is a digital assistant that searches Wikipedia for you instead of typing things out they don’t seem that different to me.

 

[steevn]

I'd like a confirmation like "Done" or "I'm having a problem."

Yea even that would be amazing. I’m just sick to my stomach of saying “change blah blah to blah blah” and it responding “ok….. I have changed blah blah to blah blah” I just want it to say nothing or “Done” lol

 

[fontman]

Yeah that's probably because Google is spending a **** load of money to pedal they're really poor quality products

 

[jclardy]

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

This was very true two years ago, but my Google home is about to go in the trash because of how laughably terrible it has become at simple tasks like setting timers. Nothing has changed in my setup, it will just literally not hear "Hey Google" 50% of the time now, for me or my wife. It's our kitchen device, so timers are basically the only thing we use it for other than a photo display. My guess is the machine learning model they use has become overtrained to the point of becoming worse than it started.

Alexa also peaked two years ago and has gone downhill ever since. Now every few requests are followed up by "Hey did you know I can do X? Just say...etc"

Siri on the other hand finally can set multiple timers and hasn't added a bunch of ads or reduced it's listening quality over time. It still has a long way to go functionality wise, but at least it hasn't degraded in experience like the others...

 

[Dominicanyor]

Looking forward seeing what Apple has to offer again when it comes to speakers. I think that the original HomePod was better but very pricey. So I lost On that one which I never purchase one.

 

[sunny5]

This message gets repeated non stop. But anyone can go watch YouTube videos of these compared and Google is the best but Apple is not that different compared to others. Unless your only use is a digital assistant that searches Wikipedia for you instead of typing things out they don’t seem that different to me.

Not even true. Clearly, we are the frog in the well cause Siri is the main reason why Apple isn't doing well with a smart speaker. Also, 3rd party developers aren't able to use Siri and Apple is limiting their access while others can be customizable.

 

[CarlJ]

I own 6 HomePods and I know why.
When it comes to speakers, I'm primarily concerned with perfectly coordinated sound. And only Apple's speakers have the processing power to achieve that. It's that simple.

Huh. Quite a few people get that perfectly coordinated sound from Sonos gear. And I'd venture a guess that Sonos has sold an order of magnitude (or more) speakers than Apple sold of the original HomePod.

 

[miamialley]

If they had one that operated on battery only I would have bought it. Requiring it to be plugged in is a little archaic.

 

[Nuno Lopes]

Here is the thing in my view … without the support of third party devs … Apple devices past the spur of the moment are mostly dead in the water at scale.

HomePod is in my mind the proof of that. It was an Apple product for Apple services, all devs were
Left out and … dang … washout.

The question is wether third party devs will trust Apple to do the right thing given the App Store policies in iOS. Third party devs and digital services collectively hold incredible power over a platform success or failure … maybe next time don’t sell them cheap … sorry … not sell …actually give it and pay on top.

This will dictate in my mind if Apple will be or not just the iPhone company with other interesting products or something even more. The iPad, a device that I find incredible, full of potential, is still an infant compared to the iPhone and the Mac

Will see.

 

[xyz01]

Not so sure about this comment. As a speaker, it blows away anything the competition has to offer as the sound quality is top notch. On the assistant side, it's actually pretty good for those that use it frequently. I think the problem is folks formed an opinion about Siri years ago and stopped using it even though Siri has been improving every year. From my perspective, it covers all the basics you would need in a household and then some. Examples:

1. I wanted to know an actors age. Check.
2. Weather. Check.
3. Send and read messages. Check.
3. Game time/channel, score, record. Check.
4. Math equations. Check.
5. Making and receiving calls. Check.
6. Playing music and adjusting volume. Check.
7. Nearby stores, restaurants with the addition of calling. Check.
8. Is a specific movie playing in the theaters? Check.


I can go on and on but again you get the point.

Going to bed at night... "Siri, turn off the light." "OK, what room?"

It really doesn't understand or learn that this means "turn off every light". Sure, at some point I will have automated that limitation and remember "Siri, turn off the light in all rooms"... but right now, it's an annoyance.

Siri also doesn't understand instructions like "Siri, play jazz for 15 minutes in the bedroom". The "15 minutes" throws it off.. so it is ignored. Also, that Apple uses airplay is an annoyance compared to Spotify connect (and similar things on other services, as Tidal) as it applies to all sound and will get highjacked if you e.g. open a picture with a sound on twitter when you listen to music.

Finally, the competition would include Sonos which has much better sound quality and flexibility compared to the HomePod.

Apple here is between the low end from competition who really want to get into your house/life and monetise that rather than the devices themselves (Google, Amazon) and devices that are just better (Sonos, Bluesound, Heos)

 

[mistasopz]

Poor/little integration with other streaming services and Siri sucks = flop product.

 

[Maconplasma]

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"

Please don't take offense to this but Coulda Woulda Shoulda. This is all I hear on this forum. "Apple Shoulda done it this way". Apple like any other company does things their way whether people agree with them or not. What difference does it make? Things happen when they do. They introduced a new speaker and IMO it made sense to bring out the most expensive one first by itself to see what type of response they get from the public. That's smart business. People complained about the price and compared the HomePod to cheaper competitors. Apple listened and they brought out the Mini. This is the same situation when Apple recently released the Magic Keyboard with Touch I.D. People are complaining that it comes in one color. Well it's not good business to release multiple colors without first seeing if it's going to be a big seller, especially during a chip shortage.

 

[LordVic]

Please don't take offense to this but Coulda Woulda Shoulda. This is all I hear on this forum. Apple Shoulda done it this way. Apple like any other company does things their way whether people agree with them or not. What difference does it make? Things happen when they do. They introduced a new speaker and IMO it made sense to bring out the most expensive one first by itself to see what type of response they get from the public. That's smart business. People complained about the price and compared the HomePod to cheaper competitors. Apple listened and they brought out the Mini. This is the same situation when Apple recently released the Magic Keyboard with Touch I.D. People are complaining that it comes in one color. Well it's not good business to release multiple colors without first seeing if it's going to be a big seller, especially during a chip shortage.

it's called armchair CEOing and that's what we do here at MacRumor's

we are allowed commenting on it, since ya know, ti's a comment thread about the topic... Seems weird to come in acomplain about people doin that

People were able to accurately predict this one years ago. Considering how many times apple was predictedt o have a "failure" of a product, only to not, the odd time we get it right, we're allowed commenting