Apple Unveils $349 HomePod Smart Speaker to be Available in December

[whsbuss]

Actually, it does much LESS than an Echo does: There is no third party integration, there's no free software development for this thing, it only understands English.

The Echo... Also supports Spotify, TuneIn, multiple "real" radio station (as in actual Radio Stations that also have streams on the web), it has "skills" for a daily growing amount of non-music related other services (I can, for example, plan my train rides with the Deutsche Bahn with it). Yeah, and Alexa is fluent in German. And she can read eBooks to me in German and English as well.

The HomePod, on the other hand, is a 350 bucks, voice enabled speaker for Apple Music.

Apple Music customers will buy this speaker, sure, so it will be a commercial success and will probably serve that specific target audience quite well. Outside the realm of Apple Music, however, there is zero reason to buy HomePod and people are better off with a device with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or even Microsoft Cortana in it.

Your comments are right on point.

My family has:

iPhones = check
iPads = check
Macbook Pro = check
iPods = check
Apple Watch = nope
HomePod = nope

 

[Winni]

Sound quality aside, isn't the Echo a better device?

The Echo is using Alexa, which, unlike Siri, is an open PLATFORM that can be used and enhanced by anybody who wants to write code for it or build a device for it. That is the main reason why Echo is the better device -- even though it is deeply integrated into Amazon's services, it also plays well with others.

 

[gcmexico]

For the life of me I can't imagine why I'd want one of these things to have a screen when the point is to talk to it from across the room. Meh.

I do wish Apple weren't getting out of the router game. These things could play well together.

the screen is for video calls...you can still talk to it from across the room, but to know you have the ability to walk to it and say video call so and so, and it instantly does that, is pretty sweet

 

[Winni]

well does it work with spotify?

Of course not. This thing was made exclusively for Apple Music.

 

[MacManTexas56]

Actually you are wrong. Echo speaker is not that bad showed you are not the target for this product. If it sounds as good as a Sonos Play 3, works seamlessly with Apple Music, is a HomeKit base, $350 is more than a reasonable price.

lol apple is only targeting apple music users. Totally limiting their market of who will buy this thing.

 

[Mtmspa]

I am sure someone was already said this but...At $350 they are competing with the Sonos 3 and alike, which is $300. It makes sense that they framed it as a music player with siri instead of a virtual assistant with a better speaker.
For folks who want much better sound and are in the apple ecosystem it may be a good option. This assumes it actually sounds good.
The problem may be that most, like on this forum, are comparing the functionality vs echo/googlehome instead of the sound quality because that is what they want.

For me, if it has $350 sound, siri is a free extra, and I will buy it.

Same here. So many ignorant people here. Comparing this to a Echo is asinine.
[doublepost=1496694005][/doublepost]

lol apple is only targeting apple music users. Totally limiting their market of who will buy this thing.

Yeah, market potential of 27 million and growing.

 

[willzyx]

It's pretty clear that Apple had no intention of getting into home automation assistant game at all, based on this speaker. They are in it so they are not left behind. By the time it reaches Echo's abilities, it will be a few years. And who knows what Amazon will create in that time.

 

[dogslobber]

Sounds like a poor man's iPod Hi-Fi(tm).

 

[whsbuss]

Same here. So many ignorant people here. Comparing this to a Echo is asinine.
[doublepost=1496694005][/doublepost]

Yeah, market potential of 27 million and growing.

Not me

 

[Lidar]

So does it know who's talking to it? Me, my wife or my son? How does it play "your" music?

 

[spazzcat]

How good can audio streamed over wifi sound? (I'm honestly asking; I still buy CDs, because audio files, and streamed mobile audio, tend to sound crappy to me.)

Try Sonos in the store, they have demo units in Targets.

 

[gcmexico]

Actually you are wrong. Echo speaker is not that bad showed you are not the target for this product. If it sounds as good as a Sonos Play 3, works seamlessly with Apple Music, is a HomeKit base, $350 is more than a reasonable price.

*
you are making my point...they are enticing a small target to beta test their home automation, and I am not that market, no thanks...if you are buying this for sound then you are the sucker paying the 350 for that, and I might be wrong but I think you can get good speakers for less than 350

 

[Harloh]

what a lack luster design... Jony Ive, wtf?

 

[576316]

Plus the UK will probably get it at £349

Hold your horses. I've just seen a very important point raised that it's possible the UK price isn't set in stone yet, and that's why they haven't displayed it on the Store. With the General Election about to happen, our currency has more fluctuating to do yet - a lot more, before December. It's possible they'll choose a price later.

 

[MacManTexas56]

Same here. So many ignorant people here. Comparing this to a Echo is asinine.
[doublepost=1496694005][/doublepost]

Yeah, market potential of 27 million and growing.

it's not ignorance, it's reality. If anyone is ignorant, it's the one defending Apple here. I used to be what people call a "fanboy" but got tired of Apple's antics. They continue to add more and more restrictions to everything they produce. You literally won't be able to do anything than what Apple wants you to do on this device. No 3rd party, nothing.

 

[Return Zero]

You guys realize the sound quality on this thing will blow the Amazon Echo out of the water, right? If the Siri improvements are as good as they say (however doubtful), it will be well worth the price.

 

[imart1n]

I'll just leave this here...

https://whyd.com

 

[576316]

It did NEED to be $100 cheaper. Apple needed to swallow their pride with this one. But as others have said, it looks like they've put a lot of work into the audio quality of the device, plus it's an Apple product and so you have to add Apple tax.

 

[mackinmike]

Real cost: $149-199. Addition of an Apple logo: $150. It's called the Apple surcharge

 

[gcmexico]

It's pretty clear that Apple had no intention of getting into home automation assistant game at all, based on this speaker. They are in it so they are not left behind. By the time it reaches Echo's abilities, it will be a few years. And who knows what Amazon will create in that time.

exactly...and to not realize this is completely asinine

 

[MacManTexas56]

You guys realize the sound quality on this thing will blow the Amazon Echo out of the water, right? If the Siri improvements are as good as they say (however doubtful), it will be well worth the price.

not when you have to buy one for every single room of your house for home automation. It's absolutely insane lol

 

[dampfnudel]

There smoking something at Apple. This is a miss. Too high price for what you get. Disappointing.

The price is about $100 too high, but that's to be expected with Apple these days. I'm sure there will be a price reduction to get it to under $300 soon enough. It will probably be another year or two before I even consider replacing my Sonos Play:1 speakers with the HomePod.

 

[gbc204]

I would need to hear how it sounds, before buying.

I'm used to playing music through a mid-level system, with Arcam separates and PMC speakers.

But this could be a potential second-room minimalist speaker if it at least puts out reasonable quality sound.

It seems there are a lot of people judging this without ever hearing it. I get that the price is too high, but I think I'll reserve judgment (crazy right!?) until I actually hear it and how well it fills a room.

 

[lordofthereef]

A lot of the price gripes are dismissing that the speaker is of much higher quality than what any competitor puts out.

That said, this still absolutely feels like a catch up product to me. There is no way anyone can make the same old argument that Apple has been working for years on something that other companies caught wind of and cranked out a half baked example.

I'm still not sold on Siri. As it stands it's the worst of the personal assistants by a wide margin (in my experience). I don't use it for anything other than setting a simple reminder or alarm anymore. Couple that with iTunes only (st least st launch) integration and this thing is borderline unusable for me. I don't buy or consume anything from iTunes

 

[mackinmike]

Just blutooth it over to some real speakers and call it a day