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Apple Says HomePod is Delayed Until Early 2018

Huge miss by Apple. This device is late already and this is an ecosystem that is developing with many early adopters moving onto their second or third voice activated device (be it Alexa or Google) by the time the holidays come and go. Apple is no doubt messing around with sound quality of the speakers while the point is putting in an always on Siri device plugged into the wall. This should have shipped a year ago. And the speaker and sound quality should be easily solved within the $400 price point that Apple announced.
 
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I just hope that it has a 3.5mm jack.

For $350, I'm expecting a speaker with impressive, room-filling sound. I was planning to put one in my kitchen - I like to listen to music as I cook, or if I'm having some drinks with friends. Siri controls and playing directly from the internet are nice additions, but I'd still need the ability for a friend to plug their device directly in.
 
avanpelt said:
Perhaps Apple finally realized that Siri is nowhere close to being reliable enough to be the primary way to control a device. If I had to control my iPhone solely with Siri, it would work properly probably 30 percent of the time. The other 70 percent would be corny responses, “I’m sorry, I can’t do that”, and web searches.
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Buts that’s also true of the other assistants. That’s why Amazon Echo is often referred to as the world’s most expensive alarm clock.

It’s also why Apple positioned it as a great speaker first, and the “smarts” was secondary.

My guess is that Apple is still fine-tuning the audio since there’s some real sophisticated computing wizardry needed to optimize the audio quality of all kinds of music in every imaginable environment, in real time.
 
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Arrggh. I'm hanging to get two (three?) of these as soon as they come out. D:
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BlendedFrog said:
Who cares about HomePod...I just want iMessage in the Cloud. iOS 11.1.2 is out and 11.2 is just about ready and it is still a no show.
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You do realize these things are being developed in parallel by (at least) two different groups? Development/delays by one have no bearing on the other.
 
levitynyc said:
Damn. With Amazon releasing new Echos with much better sound quality than their previous models, I wonder if they need to get that price down to a more reasonable level.
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No chance. On release it’ll be slightly older tech at comparatively extortionate prices.

(I’m still getting one)
 
OH GOSH WHAT A SUPRISE. The new Apple - "We need a little more time". Well Im very sure on this one that lots of people who were saving for this as a xmas pressy are going to spend that money on something else for xmas.
SONOS for me now. I'd still like to get the Home Pod, but likely not on release now.
 
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GadgetBen said:
No doubt due to the limitations of Siri.

Glad I bought the new Echo now, works well with my old Sonos.
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I can't wait for the Echo Spot to ship. Now THAT'S innovation. Gone are those GodAwful alarm clocks of the past.
[doublepost=1510957077][/doublepost]This being locked behind the apple Walled-Garden (on music it can play) is a BIG miss.
 
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Gorms said:
Do you think they finally noticed the problem of defining which device the user was trying to use when you say "Hey Siri" in a house with more than one Apple product?
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I hope Apple users don't think this is a concern.

Google has the "OK Google" functionality in its phones and Home and they've figured it out, I'm sure Apple can too.

With the Google stuff, both devices wake and listen but after the command is issued the appropriate device respond and the other just goes back to sleep.
 
Dr. Crentist said:
Hilarious and ironic to see this in a sentence about loving iOS 11.
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I think he means that the Echos have improved their sound quality generation to generation, not to say that the Echos have improved sound quality over the HomePod....
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Yes he clarified it along with you and five other people now. Read the whole thread.
 
What I don't understand with a company the size of Apple is that they only ever seem to be able to focus on one product at a time...
 
slicecom said:
I still don't get why Canada isn't getting it in the initial launch. Annoying.
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Canada's official language laws make it mandatory that any product sold in Canada must work in both official languages. Notice how HomePod is available in 3 countries whose official language is English — US, UK and Australia. HomePod must not speak French yet.
 
springsup said:
I just hope that it has a 3.5mm jack.

For $350, I'm expecting a speaker with impressive, room-filling sound. I was planning to put one in my kitchen - I like to listen to music as I cook, or if I'm having some drinks with friends. Siri controls and playing directly from the internet are nice additions, but I'd still need the ability for a friend to plug their device directly in.
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I hope it connects to my gramophone as well, it would be plain stupid to ignore dead technology. I am sure you will still enjoy getting drunk in the kitchen with friends without your mates plugging into your Pod.
 
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This is par for the course with the Apple of today, I'm sorry. These guys just do not have their stuff together that well. After them not really doing anything for 3-4 years except working on the camera and processor in their devices I was really hoping the iPhone X would be more impressive and they would also be able to come out with some really cool, and innovative products that nobody has really done yet. Yeah, not really.

The products they have been working on, that are nothing special (a speaker/home assistant) that everyone else has had for years and they're still not on the ball with that either. They probably need more time to figure out how to source cheaper parts for their device as to make their margins as high as possible. Talk to Intel, they should have some stuff laying around real cheap that will barely get the job done.

I no longer view Apple as an innovative company. Face ID is a modified xbox connect if anyone was gonna bring that up. They bought that, they didn't invent it.
 
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Mjmar said:
Hahaha why did they announce this at WWDC?
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JeffyTheQuik said:
To lock out competitors.
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Possibly.

I'm thinking it's more about stock prices. Apple makes a big announcement, and Wall Street goes ga-ga. The stock rises and so does the value of the company.

It's a tactic that Enron played extremely well. The difference being, we know Apple actually has a product to market. I'm of the opinion they need to work out some of the kinks, which is fine. We all appreciate it when Apple doesn't rush a half-baked product, right?

Still, you don't get to become a trillion dollar company without cooking your books a little bit. :rolleyes:
 
Look. I get Tim is not a product guy. Lord knows we get that with the muddled product concept of the original Apple Watch, the mess that is the laptop line, and the fact he has no problem selling 3 year old technology as “new.” Product people care too much to do these things.Sales are strong, so he can’t tell something is wrong.

Tim is an operations guy. One of the best.

But apparently his operations expertise isn”t much help either as Apple can’t even ship on time anymore. [as we all suffer through this Public Beta they call iOS 11, another missed launch.)

Apple needs some fresh blood and thinking. Tim should stay, but he needs some new blood around him.

(And what’s the prediction in the iMac pro shipping this year? Another slip or take orders at end of year with a 6 week ship so it doesn’t look like a slip?)
 
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twistedpixel8 said:
Because Apple cannot live up to their hype marketing anymore. They are just not the company they once were due to the relaxed leadership from Cook.
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Very good point. Apple is just too big to be run by a wet rag like Cook....no presence or gravitas, no personality frankly, his keynotes are cringeworthy. You need someone that exudes energy, intelligence and drive....that is not Cook.
 
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Why does this feel like they are holding this back because they want to rethink their strategy? Still think this thing is overpriced considering what Sonos provides.

The speaker feels like the one product Apple didn’t spend years working on. Actually feels like it was just a response product in an area Apple doesn’t truly care about.

Wouldn’t be surprised if this is released with a new price or scrapped all together for now.
 
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