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

[iMi]

I have turned our house into a smart home in the past few weeks. Apple's HomeKit availability is significantly weaker versus competing platforms. In addition, HomePod limitation for native music streaming was the final straw. The sound is incredible. The HomePod does sound amazing and works great if you have 100% Apple ecosystem with Apple Music as your provided.

I opted for Amazon with Alexa in every room, Fire TV Cube (replacing all Apple TVs) and Echo Shows in key locations. There was an abundance of great wall switches, light bulbs, locks, cameras and more to choose from and the project cost a fraction of what it would have cost had I stuck with Apple and HomePod.

I'll be selling the HomePod, if anyone is interested. Mint condition, original box.

Edit to add: Alexa app allows you to select the music service provider of your choice. You can tell Alexa to always play from Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify. If she can't find the tune you requested, she'll look for other services you have.

I would also add that the improvements to echo devices, the service with Alexa and the overall connectively are vast and work great. To those interested, I would recommend you setup a separate 2.4GHz network and don't use a dual network for optimum reliability. I have over 60 devices now connected and they all stay connected reliably.

 

[Rique]

I haven't read the thread (at the office, no time right now), but I'm sure when I do, I will find commenters with feelings similar to mine:

HomePod could be an attractive, AirPlay 2 capable, enhancement to an audio system. The price point is the largest issue. There are other AirPlay 2 capable speaker systems (and even some proprietary systems, such as the one Yamaha uses) which are closer to the sweet spot in pricing. Sweet sounding speakers in the 199-219 ballpark.

The number I am waiting for is 159-179... if HomePods were available at around that price point, I'd definitely be interested, because I'd love to put in an AirPlay 2 capable, multi-speaker system in my house. But for $249? No thank you.

The "smart" features have little meaning for me. Even with our Alexa and our Dots, that takes a back seat to the multi-room music feature, which we use with relatively inexpensive, and somewhat adequate, bluetooth speakers. But then, we don't have a "smart" home for the most part and that has little value for me or my wife.

 

[I7guy]

I have turned our house into a smart home in the past few weeks. Apple's HomeKit availability is significantly weaker versus competing platforms. In addition, HomePod limitation for native music streaming was the final straw. The sound is incredible. The HomePod does sound amazing and works great if you have 100% Apple ecosystem with Apple Music as your provided.

I opted for Amazon with Alexa in every room, Fire TV Cube (replacing all Apple TVs) and Echo Shows in key locations. There was an abundance of great wall switches, light bulbs, locks, cameras and more to choose from and the project cost a fraction of what it would have cost had I stuck with Apple and HomePod.

I'll be selling the HomePod, if anyone is interested. Mint condition, original box.

Edit to add: Alexa app allows you to select the music service provider of your choice. You can tell Alexa to always play from Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify. If she can't find the tune you requested, she'll look for other services you have.

I would also add that the improvements to echo devices, the service with Alexa and the overall connectively are vast and work great. To those interested, I would recommend you setup a separate 2.4GHz network and don't use a dual network for optimum reliability. I have over 60 devices now connected and they all stay connected reliably.

I’ll swap my echo dot for for your HomePod. Have no use for Alexa in my house.

 

[skaertus]

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.

It may be. But Apple’s business has never been creating quality sound equipment. The way I see it, it does not seem to appeal to Apple’s customers.

 

[Unami]

I like siri for what it does on my other devices and i don‘t find alexa or google that much better...

but i‘d never buy a speaker that doesn‘t allow other people to connect their phones or devices via bluetooth or a physical cord. can‘t make music on an ipad using the homepod without the latency delay? can‘t connect a guitar or the cd-player of my kid? have an OS but is unwilling to run spotify or common live-radio streams without a second device? then it‘s kind of a design-fail as a speaker and too limited for it‘s price tag. it‘s a toy i‘d probably pay $100 for if the sound was as good as advertised.

as much as we‘ve been hearing from apple about homepod lately,

 

[MacLoveMacHate]

I was expecting the usual defensive post:

"But ... but... who rakes the most profit?"
Or, alternatively,
"But, unlike Google and Amazon, it does not mine your privacy"

[I may be in here too early for these to show up, though.]

Yeah I expected the same, but mostly tumble weeds here with the exception of a few people who bought multiple units for expanded sound.

 

[DevNull0]

It may be. But Apple’s business has never been creating quality sound equipment. The way I see it, it does not seem to appeal to Apple’s customers.

That's a good point, but I don't think that's the whole picture. Sound quality is very important to me, I will not buy a speaker with cheap tinny sound. I hate the airpods because of their pathetic sound quality. I spent about 3 times as much on my sound system as I did on my 75" TV, and it was worth every cent.

That said, IMO, the homepod has a pretty good sound quality for its form factor. It still costs nearly double what it should compared to something of comparable size and quality (like Sonos One), but Apple will be Apple and Timmy is short-term greedy, so let's accept that.

To me, the deal breaker is that it's not even really a speaker. A speaker should be a device that will play audio from any source. Homepod is a cheesy appliance that lets you interact with siri, stream music, stream from your phone, etc. It doesn't matter how good a speaker sounds when it's permanently limited to a few toy uses. Apple only graciously allowed people to play Spotify on the homepod after they saw how abysmal sales were. It is beyond me how anyone will willing to buy a speaker that can only play sound the way Apple permits. At any price. Even at $25, I'd call the homepod overpriced given that disgusting limitation.

So, as you say, with Homepod Apple has missed the boat for the users who don't care about sound quality and just see $25 for Amazon/Google vs $300 for Apple, which given the popularity of airpod probably is the majority of Apple users like you said. They've also missed the boat on people who actually do care about sound quality, because such people want their speaker to be more than an appliance gadget. I actually expect my current home theatre speakers to last for decades though several generations of receivers and TVs.

I'm actually amazed their market share is as high as 5%, it's a testament to Apple's current popularity.

 

[Gutwrench]

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

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

 

[kemal]

They should give you one when you purchase an Apple [cr | l]aptop.

 

[Shanghaichica]

That's a good point, but I don't think that's the whole picture. Sound quality is very important to me, I will not buy a speaker with cheap tinny sound. I hate the airpods because of their pathetic sound quality. I spent about 3 times as much on my sound system as I did on my 75" TV, and it was worth every cent.

That said, IMO, the homepod has a pretty good sound quality for its form factor. It still costs nearly double what it should compared to something of comparable size and quality (like Sonos One), but Apple will be Apple and Timmy is short-term greedy, so let's accept that.

To me, the deal breaker is that it's not even really a speaker. A speaker should be a device that will play audio from any source. Homepod is a cheesy appliance that lets you interact with siri, stream music, stream from your phone, etc. It doesn't matter how good a speaker sounds when it's permanently limited to a few toy uses. Apple only graciously allowed people to play Spotify on the homepod after they saw how abysmal sales were. It is beyond me how anyone will willing to buy a speaker that can only play sound the way Apple permits. At any price. Even at $25, I'd call the homepod overpriced given that disgusting limitation.

So, as you say, with Homepod Apple has missed the boat for the users who don't care about sound quality and just see $25 for Amazon/Google vs $300 for Apple, which given the popularity of airpod probably is the majority of Apple users like you said. They've also missed the boat on people who actually do care about sound quality, because such people want their speaker to be more than an appliance gadget. I actually expect my current home theatre speakers to last for decades though several generations of receivers and TVs.

I'm actually amazed their market share is as high as 5%, it's a testament to Apple's current popularity.

You’ve always been able to play Spotify on the HomePod via airplay since the day the HomePod came out.

 

[Sasha-1]

I had bought the first Amazon Echo which then got me to subscribe to Amazon music. I think the echo as a music device is not too good. And I didn't like Amazon's music service either. Later I bought the Sonos which I thought was very good. I swore up and down that there was no way that the Apple speaker would sound better than the two Sonos 1's and Sonos Sub I had. Then I bought an Apple speaker as was blown away. I think Siri needs a LOT of work. But the sound on those Apple HomePods is the best I have heard on these little speakers. If you happen to own an Apple TV, it's even better. Send that audio to the HomePods. I own three HomePods. I like them so much I gave away my Sonos. I gave away the Echo a long time ago.

Amazon does have more features. Apple really needs to work on Siri. There is no reason why Apple shouldn't have the best AI out there. They just have to want to do it.

 

[return2sendai]

in my home, however, it has 100% market share.

Your home is not a market.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I had bought the first Amazon Echo which then got me to subscribe to Amazon music. I think the echo as a music device is not too good. And I didn't like Amazon's music service either. Later I bought the Sonos which I thought was very good. I swore up and down that there was no way that the Apple speaker would sound better than the two Sonos 1's and Sonos Sub I had. Then I bought an Apple speaker as was blown away. I think Siri needs a LOT of work. But the sound on those Apple HomePods is the best I have heard on these little speakers. If you happen to own an Apple TV, it's even better. Send that audio to the HomePods. I own three HomePods. I like them so much I gave away my Sonos. I gave away the Echo a long time ago.

Amazon does have more features. Apple really needs to work on Siri. There is no reason why Apple shouldn't have the best AI out there. They just have to want to do it.

The HomePod is better for music and not just the sound quality. Even with Apple Music set on my echos Alexa has no clue what it’s doing when I request music playback. Siri on the HomePod knows what it’s doing and plays songs I like or songs I would actually listen to. It usually sticks to the same genre of music and even if it does mix things up it works.

However Alexa with Apple Music and the google assistant on my google home devices (google play music) just get it terribly wrong all the time. Most of the time playing things I’d never listen to and randomly mixing genres. It’s better for me to just request specific songs.

The HomePod has always been spot on for me since day one. Siri is lacking in other areas but nails music playback.

 

[DevNull0]

You’ve always been able to play Spotify on the HomePod via airplay since the day the HomePod came out.

Yeah, because being able to stream from you iPhone is the same as being able to play content natively. If you were right, why would Apple add native Spotify support so quickly. Even Apple understands the difference and has changed their system. Why is it so important to your emotional center to pretend that Apple is always right about everything, even when Apple themselves back-pedals?

 

[Shanghaichica]

Yeah, because being able to stream from you iPhone is the same as being able to play content natively. If you were right, why would Apple add native Spotify support so quickly. Even Apple understands the difference and has changed their system. Why is it so important to your emotional center to pretend that Apple is always right about everything, even when Apple themselves back-pedals?

You still can’t use Siri to play Spotify. I think there is a convoluted shortcut but otherwise it’s no different to other third party music apps.

 

[chatin]

The bad CEO's take Apple to 5% market share. Steve Jobs called them out for looting the company.

 

[theluggage]

To me, the deal breaker is that it's not even really a speaker. A speaker should be a device that will play audio from any source.

That would be the deal breaker for me, too: not the price. Its hardly out of the ballpark c.f. other high-end mini speakers from the likes of Naim, Harman-Kardon etc. in a market where you don't have to look too far to find something that costs more than your car. Apple clearly market it as a music product first, smart speaker second. Its silly to compare it with Amazon and Google's heavily subsidised home spy/cash register devices (and in both cases they offer premium-priced 'HiFi' versions - Google's "Home Max" is actually more expensive than the Homepod).

No, my problem with the HomePod is that it's just too locked down and dependent on a home full of iDevices.

 

[Abazigal]

That would be the deal breaker for me, too: not the price. Its hardly out of the ballpark c.f. other high-end mini speakers from the likes of Naim, Harman-Kardon etc. in a market where you don't have to look too far to find something that costs more than your car. Apple clearly market it as a music product first, smart speaker second. Its silly to compare it with Amazon and Google's heavily subsidised home spy/cash register devices (and in both cases they offer premium-priced 'HiFi' versions - Google's "Home Max" is actually more expensive than the Homepod).

No, my problem with the HomePod is that it's just too locked down and dependent on a home full of iDevices.

That seems like the home pod's target market right there. If you use an iPhone and are subscribed to Apple music, get the HomePod. It's not as if there is any other smart speaker with native support for Siri and Apple Music.

Likewise, as I mentioned above, if I am already using Apple devices, this means I already have Siri listening in on me. So the choice between getting the homepod (which uses the same Siri backend) vs getting another smart speaker and introducing a 2nd or even 3rd voice assistant (Google assistant or Alexa) into my house seems more clear cut. I may not be able to completely avoid smart assistants, but I can at least limit my exposure to just one company, rather than a multitude of them.

 

[idrewuk]

Genuinely wondering about all of the ‘Siri is crap on HomePod’ comments; what exactly isn’t it doing that people expect? And what does Alexa, for example, do that’s so amazing? I ask Siri to play music and turn my lights on or off and it does it. Anything else is excessive and preference?

 

[Rocwurst]

Genuinely wondering about all of the ‘Siri is crap on HomePod’ comments; what exactly isn’t it doing that people expect? And what does Alexa, for example, do that’s so amazing? I ask Siri to play music and turn my lights on or off and it does it. Anything else is excessive and preference?

These people are looking at old reviews of Siri and not realising that Apple significantly improved Siri on the HomePod in late 2018. Here's what Loup Ventures had to say about the HomePod in their annual smart speaker review:

"Munster attributed the HomePod's improved accuracy to "the enabling of more domains in the past year," as a series of software updates in recent months have enabled the speaker to make and receive phone calls, schedule calendar events, set multiple timers, search for songs by lyrics, and more.

Loup Ventures says it asked each smart speaker the same 800 questions, and they were graded on two metrics: whether the query was understood and whether a correct response was provided. The question set was designed to "comprehensively test a smart speaker's ability and utility" based on five categories:

• Local – Where is the nearest coffee shop?
• Commerce – Can you order me more paper towels?
• Navigation – How do I get to uptown on the bus?
• Information – Who do the Twins play tonight?
• Command – Remind me to call Steve at 2 p.m. today."

And here are the results. As you can see, Siri is significantly better than Alexa and Cortana and only a little bit behind Google Assistant on average:

 

[DevNull0]

These people are looking at old reviews of Siri and not realising that Apple significantly improved Siri on the HomePod in late 2018. Here's what Loup Ventures had to say about the HomePod in their annual smart speaker review

I can't speak for homepod as I have zero use for a speaker that won't connect to my TV and console, but Siri on my iPhone is frustratingly beyond stupid, I've long since given up on it for anything but setting a kitchen timer.

A few examples. I was about 2 miles from Yonge St., in Toronto, Canada and wanted to find my way there. So I asked "where is Yonge Street?". It would actually show Yonge on the screen and then change it to Young and try to give me directions to a street in the US about 1,000 miles away. So gee, Siri, do you think I want to go 2 miles or 1,000 miles across an international border? FWIW, Yonge Street is the longest street in the world. "Young Street" it wanted me to go to was some tiny little side street in a town I'd never even heard of.

I was asking for help finding my way onto "Highway 400" which is a major artery through Toronto. I was less than a mile from the on-ramp but having trouble finding it. So naturally "Where is Highway 400" would give me directions to street number 400 on Highway 7. Highway 7 is a much more minor street and that address was nearly 40 miles away. It never picked up the number "7" in the search box.

I wanted directions to Costco. "Where is Costco?" would only show me Costco gas bars, which few Costcos near me have. So the "closest" it would find for me was about the 4th closest Costco. I also really was asking because I wanted to know when it closed, so knowing when the gas bar closed was completely useless. I must have tried asking 20 times and could only get a gas bar result.

The accuracy actually hearing what I'm saying appears to be perfect. The way Siri interprets the results is consistently wrong and useless. I hate Siri and don't even bother trying anymore. Except the kitchen timer seems to work well for some reason.

 

[Rocwurst]

I can't speak for homepod as I have zero use for a speaker that won't connect to my TV and console, but Siri on my iPhone is frustratingly beyond stupid, I've long since given up on it for anything but setting a kitchen timer.

A few examples.....

I'm afraid your anecdotal examples are not as useful or comprehensive as Loup Venture's rigorous 800-question study.

But, since you are talking personal anecdotes, let me share mine. I use Siri on our HomePod (and Apple Watch and iPhone) to control and monitor my entire house including the backyard Pool pump and pool heating, the robot vacuum cleaner, all the lights, the security cameras, multiple smart switches, 2 Apple TVs, Home Security System and multiple Macs. The only thing I can't control so far is my ducted Air conditioning, but that doesn't work with Alexa or Google either. And I have the reassurance that my home is far more secure and private than if it was controlled using Amazon or Google.

I ask my HomePod what the temperature is in the living room, to convert ounces to grams, to place and receive phone calls, to play "music I would like in the Living room and kitchen", to add items to the shopping list, to start the robot vacuum cleaning the house, to turn off or dim lights when I'm watching movies and the list goes on.

Because the HomePod has a 360 degree array of 7 microphones compared to the one or two in competitors, Siri understands my commands even when it's playing loud music or if I'm halfway down the hall. And man, the audio quality is awesome with thumping Bass response that has everyone looking twice at that little speaker when they hear it for the first time.

And because we are an all-Apple household, the HomePod works beautifully with our iPhones, iPads and Macs and with 1.4 Billion active Apple devices around the world owned by the most lucrative demographics, we are not alone in this elegant vertical integration.

Siri and the HomePod are brilliant and getting better all the time.

 

[DevNull0]

I'm afraid your anecdotal navigation example is not as useful or comprehensive as Loup Venture's rigorous 800-question study.

As I said, the actual speach-to-text appears flawless. Interestingly, your 800-question study right from your quote is asking stuff like "where is the nearest coffee shop". I can't imagine people ask that sort of question often, it's more likely to be "where is the nearest [my favourite coffee chain]". Certainly some people don't care where they get their coffee, but a lot of people have but most people have strong brand loyalty. The question in the study is very hard to misinterpret and I'm sure Siri will nail it. "Where is the nearest Joe's coffee shop" is something Siri is horrible at. Just like getting confused between "Costco" and "Costco Gas Bar". Anything specific, Siri gets wrong, anything generic it will get right.

Again, I'm in Toronto, so years ago, I would ask "How did the Toronto Maple Leafs do tonight". And it would give me results from some minor league or school team in the states. I'm pretty sure that one has since been fixed. Siri is flawless on "How is the weather?" It's garbage on "How is the weather in [town 50 miles away]?"

So you're right, anecdote is not evidence, but that study you reference is so flawed in the questions asked that I'm left wondering if the people conducting it were naive, lazy, or funded by Apple. Apple engineers couldn't have asked for a better set of 800 questions if they wrote them themselves, so maybe they did.

Then you go on about Siri's accuracy and integration in your house. None of that is relevant to what I said, which is Siri in brain-dead at analyzing non-trivial requests. And as far as integration, I have a lot of DIY electronics in my home which I control via IFTTT. Alexa and Google integrate with that, as well as providing an nice clean API. HomeKit will not place nice with IFTTT or anything else and has no API for a "normal person" to use it.

Edit to add: After posting this I was reading the study you referenced in more detail. It was performed by Gene Munster and Will Thompson. Munster is an Apple analyst and if you google him to see what else he says, he is so bullish on Apple he must have his life savings invested in Apple stock. Thompson and Munster write and endless stream of puff pieces promoting everytihng Apple and how great they are. There is no way in hell the study you're talking about is anything but fake Apple propaganda.

 

[I7guy]

As I said, the actual speach-to-text appears flawless. Interestingly, your 800-question study right from your quote is asking stuff like "where is the nearest coffee shop". I can't imagine people ask that sort of question often, it's more likely to be "where is the nearest [my favourite coffee chain]". Certainly some people don't care where they get their coffee, but a lot of people have but most people have strong brand loyalty. The question in the study is very hard to misinterpret and I'm sure Siri will nail it. "Where is the nearest Joe's coffee shop" is something Siri is horrible at. Just like getting confused between "Costco" and "Costco Gas Bar". Anything specific, Siri gets wrong, anything generic it will get right.

Again, I'm in Toronto, so years ago, I would ask "How did the Toronto Maple Leafs do tonight". And it would give me results from some minor league or school team in the states. I'm pretty sure that one has since been fixed. Siri is flawless on "How is the weather?" It's garbage on "How is the weather in [town 50 miles away]?"

So you're right, anecdote is not evidence, but that study you reference is so flawed in the questions asked that I'm left wondering if the people conducting it were naive, lazy, or funded by Apple. Apple engineers couldn't have asked for a better set of 800 questions if they wrote them themselves, so maybe they did.

Then you go on about Siri's accuracy and integration in your house. None of that is relevant to what I said, which is Siri in brain-dead at analyzing non-trivial requests. And as far as integration, I have a lot of DIY electronics in my home which I control via IFTTT. Alexa and Google integrate with that, as well as providing an nice clean API. HomeKit will not place nice with IFTTT or anything else and has no API for a "normal person" to use it.

Nothing like casting shade on some study you don’t agree with, and then citing some anecdotal cases where something doesn’t work for you.

 

[Rocwurst]

So you're right, anecdote is not evidence, but that study you reference is so flawed in the questions asked that I'm left wondering if the people conducting it were naive, lazy, or funded by Apple. Apple engineers couldn't have asked for a better set of 800 questions if they wrote them themselves, so maybe they did.

So are you saying that you have gone through every one of the 800 questions in Loup Venture's test bank? I'm afraid you're drawing a very long bow to try and discount such rock solid evidence with your personal anecdotes.

Then you go on about Siri's accuracy and integration in your house. None of that is relevant to what I said, which is Siri in brain-dead at analyzing non-trivial requests. And as far as integration, I have a lot of DIY electronics in my home which I control via IFTTT. Alexa and Google integrate with that, as well as providing an nice clean API. HomeKit will not place nice with IFTTT or anything else and has no API for a "normal person" to use it.

Actually, the home automation platform features built-into Homekit are more comprehensive than Amazon or Google's solutions for the "normal person". Here's what Gizmodo has to say in their comparison of the 3 platforms:

"Apple HomeKit: the most complete... potentially
Apple HomeKit works somewhat differently to Alexa and Google Assistant when it comes to the smart home, though it supports Siri and so the smart voice control is still there (“turn off the lights”). HomeKit aims to be a more fundamental underpinning of your smart home and all the devices on it. To that end there are more options in terms of automation and control than with Alexa and Google Assistant,"

"One area where HomeKit really stands out is the automation you can set up, which can even be linked to the location of your iPhone — you can have all your lights turn off when you leave, for example, without lifting a finger. That earns some points over Alexa and Google Assistant."

Apple's built-in Siri Shortcuts also gives many customisable automations similar to IFTTT and HomeBridge allows Homekit to control most non-Homekit devices as well.