Apple's HomePod Estimated to Have Just 5% of Smart Speaker Market Share in U.S.

[aksala]

I'm still interested in the Homepod. Not as a smart speaker (we already have 2 Echo devices), but as a true wi-fi speaker capable of producing fantastic sound. There was another poster here who criticized having the display on the top of the device - I agree, I think Apple missed a fantastic opportunity to have baked the display into the entire 360 degrees of the speaker grille. For instance, I could envision a function where you could set the grille to display a cool blue if it was say 40 or 50 degrees and a warm orange to red if it was 70 to 80 degrees. Or, set it to change colors and patterns set to the tempo and beat of a song. Maybe they did envision something like that and it was cost prohibitive. Or not. Either way, the current display is pretty weak, even if interesting at first.

I think with regards to the Homepod, Apple is at a critical juncture. They either have to reduce the price by about 100 dollars and improve Siri functionality, OR, tacitly admit defeat by discontinuing the device. Until then I predict it's just going to continue slogging along in sales and marketshare mediocrity. Although Apple would never admit it, they know that Homepod (at least in its current incarnation) just isn't going to ever gain a toehold in the smart speaker market until they can cut the price.

Once it hits about 199.00 to 150.00 (don't know what it'll take to make that happen, but I'm sure they can shave some of the cost off somewhere) I think it has a chance to be competitive. But it's probably too late to be a leader of the pack for many years to come.

 

[citysnaps]

Access to Alexa functions and all the home devices controlled with her. Are you even familiar with home smart devices?



Including access to 13 SONOS units. So yeah pretty decent sounding music.



12 access points for the cost of two HomePods. I’m giggling too.

Oh...you “forgot” to mention the 13 Sonos units.

That’s a lot of stuff. Why not just use the 12 Dots for music?

 

[Gutwrench]

Oh...you “forgot” to mention the 13 Sonos units.

No I didn’t. It was in the same post you quoted.

Zero percent. 12 Dots here at a cost of approximately two HomePods running a dysfunctional Siri. Almost anywhere I am at home I have access. Apple absolutely missed the boat in this area.
[doublepost=1565309623][/doublepost]

Agree here. Alexa pipes Apple and Amazon Music throughout the house over SONOS.

That’s a lot of stuff. Why not just use the 12 Dots for music?

Why should I when I have SONOS?

 

[DaveN]

I'm enjoying my HomePod. I mostly use it as a great sounding external speaker for my AppleTV and ask it the occasional simple question or to give it a command to adjust the room lighting.

 

[Abazigal]

As someone invested in the Apple ecosystem, I would get one just because it uses Siri. No point getting an echo or google home (or both) and letting all 3 companies listen in.

I mean, if I am going to use a voice assistant anyways, may as well limit the leakage to just one company.

 

[DoctorTech]

Do you have any support for these numbers? Or is it digital flatulence?

You obviously missed my use of the phrase "I bet" which implies I was stating an opinion. However, it is an informed opinion based on a 2017 ABI Research article which estimated the 2nd generation Amazon Echo Dot has a Bill of Material (BOM) cost of $34.87. The estimate does not include assembly and any end of line tests that Amazon might perform on the device. With manufacturing and test costs added, these devices would approach $40 each. Amazon sold them at full price for $49.99 and frequently ran sales on them for $25. So Amazon's average profit per unit is somewhere between +$10 and -$15 per unit depending on how many were purchased at regular price vs at sales price. For sake of argument, lets assume 70% of the units were sold at full price and 30% at the sale price. That means for every 10 units sold, Amazon would have made $70 on the 7 full price units and lost $45 on 3 sale price unit for a net profit of $25 for 10 units or $2.50 profit per unit. (NOTE: if the actual split was 60% full price and 40% sales price, Amazon would have averaged $0 profit per unit).

Meanwhile, a 2018 Forbes article estimates it costs Apple $216 to produce a HomePod which it sells for $299 which is a profit of $83 per unit. So in ballpark figures, Apple is making over 33 times the profit per unit that Amazon is making on its best selling Echo device. So as a business would you rather have 50% market share with a $2.50 profit per unit or 5% market share with an $83 profit per unit?

https://fortune.com/2018/02/15/apple-homepod-cost/

 

[bodonnell202]

Agree here. Alexa pipes Apple and Amazon Music throughout the house over SONOS.

Thumbs up from me. I actually don't own a Homepod, or an Echo but I have a bunch of Sonos speakers, some of which support Google Assistant. Great sound and the Google Assistant can control my smart home gadgets so seems to be the best of both worlds.

 

[RangerOne]

HomePod is a rather phenomenal speaker for the price -- I've paid 2x as much in the past for speakers with no smart features at all. While they are a little less capable than Amazon and Google devices, they take privacy much more seriously (despite recent news to the contrary).

I have three of them in the house, and I would buy more if I had more places to use them. I absolutely love them, and I still can't get over how fantastic they sound. I have numerous other $300+ AirPlay speakers, and HomePods are the only ones that sound right every time. I got rid of the others because I constantly had to tweak EQ settings for different stations/sources/types of music.

The original $350 price was too much, but $299 (and the frequent $250 sale price) is quite reasonable. You can even find HomePods with non-retail packaging for $229.

What Apple needs is a cheaper, smaller version. And I wouldn't mind more moisture resistance, as my master bath could really use a decent smart speaker.

Come to think of it, I just thought of another location for one.

 

[psylence2k]

There's probably alot of people that want to get one as a homekit hub but don't want to pay that much.

Apple really should come out with a cheaper non-premium speaker alternative for those that want an echo/alexa like device for homekit and siri to put around the house with an aux port also so they can just add whatever speakers they want too.

If apple is so focused on growing services now and using hardware to attract customers through marketshare then they're missing a huge opportunity here and letting Amazon and others dominate easily.

 

[Ingster]

I would love a home pod (or two) but apple still refuses. to have my Hive heating/lightbulbs and mains plugs linked to apple home (or hive doesn't want to jump through the hoops apple requires). So I've got 3 echo dots around the home but with the privacy stance of Apple supposedly being better than amazon/google i'd love to move as soon as possible.

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

a smart speaker you cant connect to any phone ... apples homepod - what a hollywood crap!
[doublepost=1565337815][/doublepost]a smart speaker small and kinda portable without a battery - what a hollywood crap!

 

[idrewuk]

Wonder if they’ll have a new version to reveal this September?

 

[dotnet]

a smart speaker you cant connect to any phone ... apples homepod - what a hollywood crap!

You can connect it to every iPhone since the 5S – that's a lot of phones!

a smart speaker small and kinda portable without a battery - what a hollywood crap!

Now, that's something I'd like to see. Instead of the attached cord a power base that it can rest on (think water kettle), and a built-in battery so you can grab it and take it with you to the pool, the BBQ, etc.

 

[Arran]

Wonder if they’ll have a new version to reveal this September?

I doubt it, but there is an iOS upgrade due soon which I’m looking forward to.

My guess is that if the iOS upgrade is well received we’ll see an uptick in sales. If that happens, we may see less channel discounting we’ve enjoyed this past year as Apple tries to pull the price upwards again.

Despite early cynicism, I was a late convert to homepods. Getting them for $200-250 helped, but once you have one (oh, and an Apple Music sub) you start to see why Apple thought $350 was a reasonable ask: It really is a simple, good-sounding, convenient, compact, all-in-one that makes music listening effortless.

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

Thats 5% more than I expected.

 

[Edsel]

The last HomePod update degraded Siri even more. Siri is almost useless now. I have purchased 4 HomePods and use these as my primary music playback devices. Their fidelity and compact design are excellent but Siri has become a burden. I have better luck instructing my dog to perform tricks than I do asking Siri to play songs.

 

[skaertus]

This is what happens when the CEO has zero interest or involvement in product development.

100% true.

The Apple HomePod has no reason to exist. Is it just a device for Apple to set foot in territory already dominated by Amazon and Google? It's long gone the time when Apple used to think it did not have to compete in every market.

If anyone thinks the HomePod market share is low, let us see how embarrassing Apple TV+ will turn out against Disney+.

 

[DavidMalcolm]

HomePod is fantastic as a speaker and honestly is worth the price. The problem is that most people don't care about fantastic sound quality. Apple needs to drop HomePod's price, while also creating a MobilePod and a HomePod mini.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Yes, echo chambers can do that to you.

Yeah, the mantra of the haters has been pernicious. People that have never seen one probably are aware that they suck, per the rumors. Sad, not saying it's not true, but dang...

I have a Bose speaker that sucks. It's supposed to be upgradable, but the app refuses to connect to it. It has 'issues', but I can't fix them, and it's out of warranty. It sits on a shelf in the garage... *sigh*

 

[ipponrg]

HomePod is fantastic as a speaker and honestly is worth the price. The problem is that most people don't care about fantastic sound quality. Apple needs to drop HomePod's price, while also creating a MobilePod and a HomePod mini.

Honestly I think it has decent sound quality but is not worth the price.

My issue with the HomePod is the same as BOSE. It sounds artificial. I think the reason why BOSE is compared by Apple centric folks is due to their marketing. Most people that are serious about sound don’t usually consider BOSE as an option.

 

[smaffei]

Bose isn't a smart speaker. Sonos barely is a smart speaker until recently. They were speakers first.

Please, I just got a Sonos Beam and that thing is awesome. Multifunctional, Alexa / Google support, great sounding, and integrates with my TV. HomePod who?

 

[ipponrg]

Please, I just got a Sonos Beam and that thing is awesome. Multifunctional, Alexa / Google support, great sounding, and integrates with my TV. HomePod who?

Not sure what you’re responding about.

 

[xalea]

Buy a $30-40 Echo Dot and connect it with a wire to whatever amazing speakers you want. Alexa is amazing and you can choose from multiple streaming music services, including Apple Music (that was stupid on their part to allow this, frankly but I'm super glad they did). I'm a musician and have a new Echo Show 5 wired in directly to some of my studio monitors and it's wonderful. Funny, but wonderful.

 

[spacemnspiff]

This product segment is not a profit maker, it's a ancillary loss leader product that Amazon is winning at, how cool !

 

[ACE83]

Lots of haters but we love our HomePods. So much so that we’re considering adding another.

Great sound that fills the room, multi-room audio, wirelessly connects to Apple TV, Siri controls all of our HomeKit devices/scenes and handles our music queries, AirPlay 2...

We were streaming the World Cup recently in the living room and with the click of a button I was able to push the audio feed to multiple other rooms where the TV sound normally wouldn’t be available. That felt like the future to me.

The next things I’d like to see would be Siri shortcuts in the cloud so they can be accessed when an iPhone isn’t on the same network and a HomePod mini - so long as it still has good enough audio quality.