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

[DevNull0]

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.

After posting what you replied to, I learned the study 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 everything Apple and how great they are.

This "study" is absolutely nothing but pro-Apple fluff that has zero factual basis and was written for the sole purpose of promoting Apple.

You and I go back a long way here. So I know your position well. Compared to the authors of this "study" you're an Apple hater. Yet you still want to pretend they did careful and sound research to arrive at a legitimate conclusion. You're smarter than that.
[doublepost=1565485644][/doublepost]

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.

Nope, instead I looked into the authors. They're not impartial researchers, they're hardcore Apple fanboys. The "study" is nothing but lies and propaganda.

 

[thefourthpope]

We outfitted our home last November but chose to go with Sonos. A better combination of price, quality, and flexibility; the addition of Apple Music has made the system excellent. Sonos prompted my first experience with Alexa, and I have to agree with many that it’s a far superior service to Siri.

 

[Rocwurst]

After posting what you replied to, I learned the study 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 everything Apple and how great they are.

This "study" is absolutely nothing but pro-Apple fluff that has zero factual basis and was written for the sole purpose of promoting Apple.

You and I go back a long way here. So I know your position well. Compared to the authors of this "study" you're an Apple hater. Yet you still want to pretend they did careful and sound research to arrive at a legitimate conclusion. You're smarter than that.
[doublepost=1565485644][/doublepost]

Nope, instead I looked into the authors. They're not impartial researchers, they're hardcore Apple fanboys. The "study" is nothing but lies and propaganda.

One tiny problem with your accusations of bias. The last time that Loup Ventures did their annual Smart Speaker comparison, they put Apple's HomePod dead last performing even worse than Cortana:

"Three HomePods were subjected to 782 queries by the firm, said analyst Gene Munster. While Siri understood 99.4 percent of them, it was only able to answer 52.3 percent of them correctly. The latter figure compares with rates of 81 percent for Google, 64 percent for Alexa, and 57 percent for Cortana."​

So much for your accusations that they are "Apple fanboys".

No, I'm afraid that it is you who are the one who is biased against Apple and have nothing but your own skewed personal anecdotes to back yourself up with.

 

[Shanghaichica]

One tiny problem with your accusations of bias. The last time that Loup Ventures did their annual Smart Speaker comparison, they put Apple's HomePod dead last performing even worse than Cortana:

"Three HomePods were subjected to 782 queries by the firm, said analyst Gene Munster. While Siri understood 99.4 percent of them, it was only able to answer 52.3 percent of them correctly. The latter figure compares with rates of 81 percent for Google, 64 percent for Alexa, and 57 percent for Cortana."​

So much for your accusations of partiality.

No, I'm afraid that it is you who are the one who is biased against Apple and have nothing but your own skewed personal anecdotes to back yourself up with.

I own all 3 and the HomePod is third for me in terms of smart assistant functionality. However the homepod integrates better with my Apple devices/services a lot better than the other 2, has better sound quality. In terms of what else I'd want siri on my HomePod to do? All I want is to be able to ask the HomePod to play a certain show and for the TV to come on and start playing said show. You can already do this with iOS devices so I don't know why you can't with the HomePod.

 

[TheSapient]

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.



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.

Perficient Digital's test users 4900+ queries, and Siri finished behind every other major digital assistant.

As for home automation, the reality is that developers simply haven't bought into Apple's Homekit. Siri is orders of magnitude behind Alexa and Google. Siri may have the potential for greatness in this area. Alexa is actually great for home automation.

 

[Rocwurst]

Perficient Digital's test users 4900+ queries, and Siri finished behind every other major digital assistant.

Ah, but Perficient did their voice assistant study in May 2018 - before Apple's late-2018 updates to Siri, which means it would be expected to be behind the competition. However, after Apple's significant improvements to Siri, it went from last to 2nd only to Google in Loup Ventures latest tests.

As for home automation, the reality is that developers simply haven't bought into Apple's Homekit. Siri is orders of magnitude behind Alexa and Google. Siri may have the potential for greatness in this area. Alexa is actually great for home automation.

Except for the fact that Alexa or Google don't have all the conditional automation features already built natively into Homekit as Gizmodo reported. Alexa has lots of devices supporting it, but it is also vastly less secure than Homekit's architecture, something you do not want with home automation - unless you're happy with bad actors being able to open your front door or garage door and monitoring your home security cameras etc.

Apple's new Security camera local encryption and hosting feature is a prime example where Homekit is far ahead of Google or Amazon in tightly integrating disparate third party products in a secure, easy to use Home automation platform.

 

[robbietop]

Mac OS X was once 5% of the market and it still is the superior OS. Marketshare means nothing if you have the better product.

HomePod can't outsell the dinky, tinny $99 Echo. But the $99 Echo can't even produce 1/10 of the sound range the HomePod can.

Quality over quantity.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Mac OS X was once 5% of the market and it still is the superior OS. Marketshare means nothing if you have the better product.

HomePod can't outsell the dinky, tinny $99 Echo. But the $99 Echo can't even produce 1/10 of the sound range the HomePod can.

Quality over quantity.

The sound quality of the HomePod is better than the cheaper echos and google home devices. However the home max is comparable in sound quality to the HomePod and has a better personal assistant. You can also get two regular echos and a sub woofer creating a 2.1 sound system for less than the price of one HomePod.

 

[Timemaster]

Mac OS X was once 5% of the market and it still is the superior OS. Marketshare means nothing if you have the better product.

HomePod can't outsell the dinky, tinny $99 Echo. But the $99 Echo can't even produce 1/10 of the sound range the HomePod can.

Quality over quantity.

You are forgetting the saying of right tool right job.
A vast majority of what the echo or say Google homes do is not about the speaker quality and often times the need is good enough.

That is what is the weather like, set a timer, set alarm or some house automation.

Playing music is a common task but generally it more for some background noise.
While the apple home pod is an amazing speaker for a vast majority it is massive overkill.

In say may case I would want 1 very nice speaker for music but still want to have the rest of the power of the voice assistance in the rest of my house. In that case sorry apple cost way to damn much and is over kill.

Google on the other hand solves that problem. It has the nice speaker and lost of cheaper ones for the rest of the house that work really well together.

Right tool right job.

 

[Rocwurst]

The sound quality of the HomePod is better than the cheaper echos and google home devices. However the home max is comparable in sound quality to the HomePod and has a better personal assistant. You can also get two regular echos and a sub woofer creating a 2.1 sound system for less than the price of one HomePod.

Actually, the much bulkier Google Home Max is $100 more expensive than the HomePod and although it has a higher maximum volume has slightly worse quality audio than the HomePod.

Regular Echos only have a single microphone compared to the 360 degree 6 microphone array of the HomePod so are far worse at picking up commands from across the room or when they are playing music.

The two Echos compare very poorly to the 7 beamforming tweeters (each with its own amplifier) in the HomePod and that cheap subwoofer is unlikely to have the massive 2cm high excursion performance of the HomePod’s thumping Sub-woofer.

Then there is the high performance A8 CPU in the HomePod that continuously analyses the surroundings in 3D and adjusts the sound based on the speaker’s location, separating the music into direct and ambient sound. Direct sound, including the main vocals and instruments, is beamed to the middle of the room, while ambient sound is diffused into left and right channels and bounced off the wall.

It all happens automatically and is quite magical.

 

[Rocwurst]

You are forgetting the saying of right tool right job.
In say may case I would want 1 very nice speaker for music but still want to have the rest of the power of the voice assistance in the rest of my house. In that case sorry apple cost way to damn much and is over kill.

In our case my family all have Apple Watches (and iPhones) so we can use Siri anywhere in or outside of the house (or at work or on the other side of the planet) merely by raising our wrist for all those home automation and other voice commands. Not a bad alternative frankly - one Apple Watch on your wrist (with all it's other amazing functionality) versus umpteen Echos in every room and still you won't cover everywhere you go beyond the house.

This is why Siri actually dominates the Voice Assistant market in terms of actual usage to the tune of 45.6% marketshare compared to Google Assistant on 28.7%, Alexa on 13.2%, Samsung's Bixby on 6.2% and Microsoft's Cortana on 4.9%. Those 1.4 billion active Apple devices worldwide absolutely dwarf the number of smart speakers globally.

Also, with the 6 microphone array in the HomePod we can also issue commands to Siri throughout our open plan home and halfway down the corridor. It's incredible how sensitive and accurate it is.

And with that amazing audio quality, we'll eventually be buying more HomePods to get whole-house audio to die for.

 

[Timemaster]

In our case my family all have Apple Watches (and iPhones) so we can use Siri anywhere in or outside of the house (or at work or on the other side of the planet) merely by raising our wrist for all those home automation and other voice commands. Not a bad alternative frankly - one Apple Watch on your wrist (with all it's other amazing functionality) versus umpteen Echos in every room and still you won't cover everywhere you go beyond the house.

This is why Siri actually dominates the Voice Assistant market in terms of actual usage to the tune of 45.6% marketshare compared to Google Assistant on 28.7%, Alexa on 13.2%, Samsung's Bixby on 6.2% and Microsoft's Cortana on 4.9%. Those 1.4 billion active Apple devices worldwide absolutely dwarf the number of smart speakers globally.

Also, with the 6 microphone array in the HomePod we can also issue commands to Siri throughout our open plan home and halfway down the corridor. It's incredible how sensitive and accurate it is.

And with that amazing audio quality, we'll eventually be buying more HomePods to get whole-house audio to die for.

Again I think you are missing the point.
Lets face it the speaker on the iWatch is horrible in terms of volume and quality. The phone way of responding to voice is again limited. Not for the fault of Apple but it is the basic design of a phone.

Plus it not like a lot of people have their phone on them full time in the house. Often times my phone is on table or counter near me but still not on me.

Examples of when the cheaper speakers are a lot nicer for the value. A cheap google mini I am willing to throw in a limited use room or say a bathroom which has the risk of getting damage. Plus takes up very little of the very limited space.

You keep talking about speaker quality but forgetting the power of a network.

Apple speaker like i said is 5% of the market because 1 it is super late to the game. 2 massive over kil for 90% of the uses. Good enough is what is what is needed. Good enough to have some basic background noice when getting ready or cleaning. It is not like a high end speaker you can enjoy it when you have vacuum running. That extra noise will drown up any improve speaker quality.

Lastly lets face it Siri is one of the worse voice assistances out there. Google by far is best. Siri is falling behind. They did an update but Amazon going to do their next one and Apple goes back to its distance third.

 

[Rocwurst]

Again I think you are missing the point.
Lets face it the speaker on the iWatch is horrible in terms of volume and quality. The phone way of responding to voice is again limited. Not for the fault of Apple but it is the basic design of a phone.

Plus it not like a lot of people have their phone on them full time in the house. Often times my phone is on table or counter near me but still not on me.

Actually, the Apple Watch speaker is perfect audio quality for voice assistant dialog and is with you everywhere you go around the house - even in the shower or pool thanks to its Water resistant to 50m nature. And there are around 60-70m active Apple Watches worldwide. In addition there are close to 50m AirPods which also can send and receive Siri commands and dialog and of course give far superior audio quality and microphone accuracy than those cheap and nasty Echo speakers.

You keep talking about speaker quality but forgetting the power of a network.

And you're forgetting the power of the network of 1.4 billion active Siri-enabled Apple devices worldwide compared to less than 200m smart speakers globally. Our AppleTVs for example are connected to vastly higher quality 7.1 Surround sound systems in our Lounge and Games rooms with Siri commands at your fingertips through the remote and there are around 60m active AppleTVs worldwide as well. Every one of the 100m active Mac desktops and laptops are also Siri-enabled and ready to rumble in the home automation and voice command stakes.

Apple speaker like i said is 5% of the market because 1 it is super late to the game. 2 massive over kil for 90% of the uses. Good enough is what is what is needed. Good enough to have some basic background noice when getting ready or cleaning. It is not like a high end speaker you can enjoy it when you have vacuum running. That extra noise will drown up any improve speaker quality.

And that extra noise will also drown out your voice commands to those poor quality microphones in those cheap Echos. Don't kid yourself, people aren't buying Echos with their cheap tinny speakers to play music, it's for voice commands, but with 45.6% usage marketshare, Apple's Siri demolishes both Google Assistant on 28.7% and Alexa on 13.2% in terms of actual voice assistant usage.

Lastly lets face it Siri is one of the worse voice assistances out there. Google by far is best. Siri is falling behind. They did an update but Amazon going to do their next one and Apple goes back to its distance third.

Except Siri is actually only 7% behind Google Assistant in accuracy leaving Alexa 18% behind. Siri is also improving faster at a rate of 22% compared to only 7% for Google and 9% annually for Alexa according to Loup Ventures. Alexa ain't passing Siri anytime soon with those stats thank you very much.

 

[Sabelonada]

And that extra noise will also drown out your voice commands to those poor quality microphones in those cheap Echos. Don't kid yourself, people aren't buying Echos with their cheap tinny speakers to play music, it's for voice commands, but with 45.6% usage marketshare, Apple's Siri demolishes both Google Assistant on 28.7% and Alexa on 13.2% in terms of actual voice assistant usage.

You're missing the point of good enough and buy in. It was buy a small Echo Dot for peanuts to get exposure to Alexa. After that, it was some iHome or some such clock/speaker with Alexa. Then it's the Fire TV devices.

For getting ready in the morning and listening to the morning DJ, the Echo Dot is quite adequate. Not everyone appreciates and therefor does not need the experience of the HomePod.

Oh, Alexa could be trained to control the TV/Roku/Blu Ray player without an Apple TV using a smart remote control. It is not an ideal situation and frustrating but Apple offers nothing in that area.

One can attach and Echo Input onto their receiver and use that to play music. That's capitalizing on an already existing purchase and bringing it into a connected world. Can HomePod do that?

The reason Toyota and Honda sell in huge numbers is that their vehicles are good enough without being particularly stellar with regards to driving.

 

[Timemaster]

Actually, the Apple Watch speaker is perfect audio quality for voice assistant dialog and is with you everywhere you go around the house - even in the shower or pool thanks to its Water resistant to 50m nature. And there are around 60-70m active Apple Watches worldwide. In addition there are close to 50m AirPods which also can send and receive Siri commands and dialog and of course give far superior audio quality and microphone accuracy than those cheap and nasty Echo speakers.

Cool so you show with your watch on. I do not think most people do. Plus even then speaker fails to be good enough.

And you're forgetting the power of the network of 1.4 billion active Siri-enabled Apple devices worldwide compared to less than 200m smart speakers globally. Our AppleTVs for example are connected to vastly higher quality 7.1 Surround sound systems in our Lounge and Games rooms with Siri commands at your fingertips through the remote and there are around 60m active AppleTVs worldwide as well. Every one of the 100m active Mac desktops and laptops are also Siri-enabled and ready to rumble in the home automation and voice command stakes.

If you want to go there I am pretty sure Google going to blow Apple out of the water big time as Google assistant works on ALL iPhones but more importantly works on ALL Android devices with the command Hey Google. Lets face it Android out numbers iOS....
Amazon is Alexia is back into a lot more than just speakers. I personally do not like it but in terms of smart home Apple is pretty far behind.

And that extra noise will also drown out your voice commands to those poor quality microphones in those cheap Echos. Don't kid yourself, people aren't buying Echos with their cheap tinny speakers to play music, it's for voice commands, but with 45.6% usage marketshare, Apple's Siri demolishes both Google Assistant on 28.7% and Alexa on 13.2% in terms of actual voice assistant usage.

Where are you getting those numbers?

Except Siri is actually only 7% behind Google Assistant in accuracy leaving Alexa 18% behind. Siri is also improving faster at a rate of 22% compared to only 7% for Google and 9% annually for Alexa according to Loup Ventures. Alexa ain't passing Siri anytime soon with those stats thank you very much.

Well when ones product is horrible it is pretty easy to make massive gains. a 22% gain vs Google and still fairly far behind says something and it is not good.


You can keep screaming defending Apple but you have failed to address the simple fact that the home pod is very expensive and massive overkill for what most people want/need. I never said that the Apple speaker did not sound great but I am pointing out why it is so far behind.
Why does Honda out sell Lexus or BMW by so much. Give you a hint luxury cars are massive overkill for what most people want/need

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Ever take a look at Siri Shortcuts?

Will it let you stream your own music library without having to pay monthly?

 

[skys15]

I loved mine and it’s barely “smart” enough but...If price came down and they offered “broadcast” to other speakers, then I’d fill my house with them. I love that it’ll hear you well anywhere around the room even when music is playing fairly loud. This works better than most smart speakers. I have ten google home minis around the house and they’re just too finicky. Every day I ask to play music on all speakers at a certain volume and it takes 3 tries to get it. But they practically cost nothing when they’re thrown in for free during deals.

 

[Rocwurst]

Cool so you show with your watch on. I do not think most people do. Plus even then speaker fails to be good enough.

I don't, but you mentioned you could put a sacrificial Echo in the bathroom and wouldn't care if it died from the moisture. My point is that the Apple Watch (and iPhone) are waterproof so unlike the Echo wouldn't risk damage being on your wrist/nearby in that location or when you're swimming and still be usable as a voice assistant.

If you want to go there I am pretty sure Google going to blow Apple out of the water big time as Google assistant works on ALL iPhones but more importantly works on ALL Android devices with the command Hey Google. Lets face it Android out numbers iOS....
Amazon is Alexia is back into a lot more than just speakers. I personally do not like it but in terms of smart home Apple is pretty far behind.

Except that Google's active Android user base only outnumbers Apple by 2.5 billion to 1.3 billion active iOS devices worldwide. Even more importantly despite Android's numerical superiority, people just don't use Google Assistant nearly as much as Apple users use Siri, perhaps because the majority of Android devices sold are cheap and nasty 200 dollar plastic phones sold in developing nations. (not to mention that all those AOSP Android devices sold in China don't have Google services on them). Voicebot.ai reported that:

"Siri controlled 45.6% of the voice assistant market, although iOS and macOS devices account for much smaller slices of the mobile and desktop markets, respectively, than Android and Windows. Google Assistant claimed 28.7% of that market, while Amazon's Alexa ranked third with a 13.2% share."​

As you can see, Alexa only makes up 13.2% of voice assistant usage compared to Siri on 45.6% so no, it also does not beat Siri in terms of usage either.

Well when ones product is horrible it is pretty easy to make massive gains. a 22% gain vs Google and still fairly far behind says something and it is not good.

Ah, but the fact that Siri is now significantly better than Alexa and only a bit behind Google is definitely a good thing for Apple's future.

You can keep screaming defending Apple but you have failed to address the simple fact that the home pod is very expensive and massive overkill for what most people want/need. I never said that the Apple speaker did not sound great but I am pointing out why it is so far behind.
Why does Honda out sell Lexus or BMW by so much. Give you a hint luxury cars are massive overkill for what most people want/need

And you have failed to address the fact that Apple doesn't need cheap tinny smart speakers in every room, because they already have many more Siri-enabled devices on people's wrists, ears, pockets, laps, desks and TVs around the house and beyond. As a result, the market they are mainly addressing with the HomePod is that which wants high quality audio (with smart features) around the home (the Google HomeMax segment) since they already have the voice assistant market sown up.

 

[Rocwurst]

You're missing the point of good enough and buy in. It was buy a small Echo Dot for peanuts to get exposure to Alexa. After that, it was some iHome or some such clock/speaker with Alexa. Then it's the Fire TV devices.

And yet Alexa only manages to capture 13.2% of voice assistant usage compared to Siri on 45.6% so all those small cheap devices are not doing a terribly good job competing against the huge active Siri installed base in terms of actual voice assistant usage.

For getting ready in the morning and listening to the morning DJ, the Echo Dot is quite adequate. Not everyone appreciates and therefor does not need the experience of the HomePod.

But everybody needs a voice assistant that can hear you even when the music or DJ is playing and the Echo does a terrible job of that.

Oh, Alexa could be trained to control the TV/Roku/Blu Ray player without an Apple TV using a smart remote control. It is not an ideal situation and frustrating but Apple offers nothing in that area.

All the big TV manufacturers and Roku are now all adding AirPlay 2 (and Homekit) support to their devices and Sonos and other hifi manufacturers like Denon have supported Apple's Airplay protocol natively for years, so yes Apple does offer options in that area.

One can attach and Echo Input onto their receiver and use that to play music. That's capitalizing on an already existing purchase and bringing it into a connected world. Can HomePod do that?

It doesn't need to since almost all of those existing devices that have higher audio quality than the HomePod support Airplay already.

The reason Toyota and Honda sell in huge numbers is that their vehicles are good enough without being particularly stellar with regards to driving.

I think with Siri being on 1.4 billion iPhones, Apple Watches, Airpods, iPads, AppleTVs, iPod Touches, Macs and HomePods compared to Alexa being on only around 100m smart speakers and a few other devices, your metaphor doesn't quite work where it matters.

 

[Rocwurst]

Will it let you stream your own music library without having to pay monthly?

You can indeed stream any music in your own iTunes libraries on your Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad etc to the HomePod without paying the $25 per year, but is your budget really that constrained that you wouldn't appreciate all of Apple's iTunes Match features?

 

[Newtons Apple]

I already had a house full of Sonos and was not impressed with Apple’s offering.

 

[dazz87]

Shocking.......A device that does less but cost more...... Mmmmm.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

You can indeed stream any music in your own iTunes libraries on your Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad etc to the HomePod without paying the $25 per year, but is your budget really that constrained that you wouldn't appreciate all of Apple's iTunes Match features?

Can you share iTunes Match with the rest of your household?

 

[stoopkidblues]

Can you share iTunes Match with the rest of your household?

I think so, but you have a limit to how many devices can access iTunes Match (like 10 I believe). So depending on the number of devices and/or family members you might hit the limit and have to remove some others before adding more.

At least I think that’s how it still works.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

I think so, but you have a limit to how many devices can access iTunes Match (like 10 I believe). So depending on the number of devices and/or family members you might hit the limit and have to remove some others before adding more.

At least I think that’s how it still works.

I just found the answer: No, except if you share your account with the other users: https://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/sharing-itunes-match-among-family-members

so, it is still limited for what I need it.