Bingo. I’m not saying they are not good but popularity is regional just as beats headphones were. Some do not get that and everyones experience of seeing them are not the same.
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Barclays Says AirPods Continue to Grow, HomePod Sales Have Been Underwhelming
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Bingo. I’m not saying they are not good but popularity is regional just as beats headphones were. Some do not get that and everyones experience of seeing them are not the same.
iOS 12 will be a worse disaster than iOS 11, and by the end of 2018 all iPhones will be throttled! Most of Apple's key personnel will have head injuries from walking into the glass walls at Apple Park!
AAPL – strong (panic) sell! Never has a company been so over-valued! Google will become the 1st trillion dollar company, the trajectory is clear.
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Do I understand correctly that the law has changed in the US and Apple will have to start reporting these numbers? Something isn't quite right when you have shareholders but you refuse to tell them how many of each product you're selling.
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Don't forget that AMZN is in the running too.
iTunes = Bad. Agreed! One of the reasons for the HP's lackluster appeal. Spotify would have made it somewhat more appealing if nothing else especially with the coming public offering. But taste does vary as some are seemingly feeding their HP's birth control with not being able to contain their blind love for it. lol
Mad Mac Maniac
macrumors 601
I know I'm not saying anything profound, but HomePod is hands down the worst Apple product that has been released since I joined the cult (just over 10 years ago). And honestly it's not even close (and that's even including the trashcan mac pro...). For the price point, with the competition, this thing is just attrocious. Now could it catch up, sure. Could it sell well thanks to Apple fans, perhaps. But... it's just not so great.
You can find a problem in a digital assistant... wow. Golf clap.
Siri fails. For an example from a Siri expert try Jumpman by Drake & Future. Siri consistently parses it as Jump Man and can't find it. Or try trig functions...
Siri however, is wildly useful and I use it all the time. The issue is that if you want to use this tool and for it to be useful you'll need to work with it and find the edges. Just because it can't do everything doesn't mean it isn't useful.
I tend to agree. I have a lot of Sonos equipment already, but thought HomePod was interesting. With the almost uniformly solid reviews, I bought a HomePod and it was delivered on launch day.
The reviews, for me, were wrong. The audio quality, to my ears, is just not there. Bass is often overly prominent, the mid range is recessed and lacking, but the top end is good. Overall it's just OK. I'm keeping it, as the sound may open up when you can stereo pair them.
I have noticed however that Siri does seem to get what I want almost all of the time - much better than I was expecting, as I continue to think Siri is generally garbage. Here, she works well.
Not surprised about the HomePod - too limited, needs Bluetooth and AUX input so that any device can connect to it and stream any source. I'm sure the audio is beautiful though, but again, too limited in use. A shame, really.
Let's face, Siri is a ditz that once led a hard life of alcohol and drugs.
Let's see [all very fair requests]:
- [Able to listen to the same stream from multiple speakers in multiple rooms, or be able to listen to different speakers independently] As you said, Airplay2.
- [The device should understand who is speaking to it with voice recognition, and use that person's account rather than having all the activity get routed through one account] Will not happen. Why? IOS has never been touted as multi-user -- not on the iPad, not on the Apple TV, not on the HomePod. Even their authentication systems remain single-user, even where it may make sense to be otherwise.
- [The device should be able to accept inputs from external devices, primarily thinking of my TV] Highly unlikely. As of its current design, it is a wireless AirPlay2/AirPlay speaker devoid of universality and, unless there is a major rethinking (thus, unlikely), never meant to have industry-standard physical interfaces.
Im not a die hard like some but I do buy most Apple products. Problem has been a few have made it to the market way before they were ready. Prototypes or beta's if you will otherwise most products are solid like the recent MB Pro's touch bar included, iPad Pro's & AirPods. Also, price points need more focus and attention if they want to compete. The 350 pp for the limited and handicaped HP was a disaster move and the new GREAT S. Jones Spot ain't gonna save it.
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“Underwhelming” compared to what? Compared to whose projections? If Apple really had an initial run of 6 million HomePods and they sell them at US$300 per unit, that results in US $1.8 billon in new revenues. And that’s assuming Apple really had that many unit manufactured.
Apple uses diferencial privacy and doesn't spy on you. They get and process information locally.
Google just steals and sells every bit of information they lay their hands on, and them use that huge amount of data to make a great assistant! But the cost is your entire digital life.
I was kidding, with a dose of sarcasm
Ah, sorry. Went over my head.
It's funny how the tone of this thread has done a complete 180 flip since the launch day discussions. At that time, you'd be laughed out of town for even suggesting that the HomePod wasn't going to become the bestselling consumer electronics item in history, and yet now all of a sudden everyone has accepted that it's an underwhelming product and is selling accordingly.
I spend most of my time downtown and in LoDo. Never see them there. Sure you're not just hoping to see them??
Let's see. In a discussion about AirPods success we have the following to go on:
Numerous people on MR who see lots of them in use. Numerous people on MR who actually own them and love them. Frequent stock outs in Apple Stores and back-ordered status for AirPods. Apples own comments about how well they are doing along with Apples earnings report showing large increases in their "other category". Numerous analyst reports that state AirPods are selling like crazy.
or...
A single comment from one person implying that because they haven't seen any they must not be selling.
I think I know which side to believe.
Who is surprised by this? We all know Apple won’t break out HomePod sales numbers, so we’ll never really know how they are selling. HomePod is hardly a product with broad appeal. It’s an expensive Apple Music accessory. A niche within a niche. It won’t come close to selling as many units as Airpods or even Apple Watch. I’ll be impressed if they sell a million HomePods this year, shocked if they sell 2.
When it comes to audio, there are two types of customers. The average customer doesn’t have a particularly discerning ear and bases purchasing decisions on price, loudness, maybe bass. There are plenty of “good enough” low cost speakers to satisfy these customers. Why pay more for HomePod? Especially if you don’t use Apple Music. The other customer will pay a lot for better quality. A lot. They’re never going to consider HomePod.
HomePod is a bust for people like me who already have speakers. I’m not about to replace the high end built-in speakers throughout my house with HomePods. If Apple is serious about home audio, they need to follow Sonos and offer speaker-less HomePods that either connect to existing amps and powered speakers or have a built-in amp. Until that happens, Sonos has nothing to worry about.
I’m an Apple fan and have been buying their products for 35 years, but I’m not delusional. HomePod isn’t a revolutionary product. It’s not a must have product. There’s nothing particularly stand-out about it. Yes, it offers great audio at a reasonable price, but so what? Like I said, the average person is going to find other, cheaper options to be “good enough.” Meanwhile, the high end buyer is going to the high end audio store where the sales person will sell him or her speakers that cost 2-10x what a HomePod costs, along with Sonos boxes to run everything.
Which leaves us with Apple Music subscribers as the primary target market. Will the Siri features convince the “good enough” Apple Music subscribers to spend more for a HomePod? I’m not so sure. If Apple gets 5% of Apple Music subscribers to buy a HomePod, that’s still less than 2 million units. It’s an accessory with a very limited audience. If they want it to take off, they need to give HomePod buyers a free year of Apple Music. And they need to challenge Sonos in the high end market by offering speaker-less HomePods so customers like me can use the speakers we want.
When it comes to audio, there are two types of customers. The average customer doesn’t have a particularly discerning ear and bases purchasing decisions on price, loudness, maybe bass. There are plenty of “good enough” low cost speakers to satisfy these customers. Why pay more for HomePod? Especially if you don’t use Apple Music. The other customer will pay a lot for better quality. A lot. They’re never going to consider HomePod.
HomePod is a bust for people like me who already have speakers. I’m not about to replace the high end built-in speakers throughout my house with HomePods. If Apple is serious about home audio, they need to follow Sonos and offer speaker-less HomePods that either connect to existing amps and powered speakers or have a built-in amp. Until that happens, Sonos has nothing to worry about.
I’m an Apple fan and have been buying their products for 35 years, but I’m not delusional. HomePod isn’t a revolutionary product. It’s not a must have product. There’s nothing particularly stand-out about it. Yes, it offers great audio at a reasonable price, but so what? Like I said, the average person is going to find other, cheaper options to be “good enough.” Meanwhile, the high end buyer is going to the high end audio store where the sales person will sell him or her speakers that cost 2-10x what a HomePod costs, along with Sonos boxes to run everything.
Which leaves us with Apple Music subscribers as the primary target market. Will the Siri features convince the “good enough” Apple Music subscribers to spend more for a HomePod? I’m not so sure. If Apple gets 5% of Apple Music subscribers to buy a HomePod, that’s still less than 2 million units. It’s an accessory with a very limited audience. If they want it to take off, they need to give HomePod buyers a free year of Apple Music. And they need to challenge Sonos in the high end market by offering speaker-less HomePods so customers like me can use the speakers we want.