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China Times Echoes Poor HomePod Sales and Rumors About Possible Lower-Priced Version
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Just so you know, I was just sitting here listening to some old Uriah Heep on one of my HomePods, which is sitting on my end table, perched atop a yoga block, at volume 60. Two pens that were laying on end table vibrated off. More than enough base for me!
"I found myself wanting to adjust things, but couldn't due to lack of EQ controls." Huh? In all probability you will be supplying programming from your Mac, iPhone or iPad, right? Each of these devices have built-in equalizers, and if you don't like them you can pick up plenty of third-party alternatives.
Or the plan all along was to fully stock stores with the 500k, then sustain at 200k a month.
200k per month sounds like absolutely great numbers considering the HomePod is arguably one of the worst smart speakers available. Only the most die-hard Apple fans would consider one.
Send Siri to college (or, better yet, replace her with Alexa), add native support for Spotify, and drop the price a bit and it could be a truly great product.
Send Siri to college (or, better yet, replace her with Alexa), add native support for Spotify, and drop the price a bit and it could be a truly great product.
Well it is a premium speaker (price wise) compared to Echo and Home. I consider HomePod to be much more niche than Apple Watch.
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And most of that can happen with software updates. I doubt we’ll see a price drop but if Apple improves the software they won’t have to.
It will get more sales when air play 2 is out
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Apple have hired guys recently from google and amazon for a reason and that’s to help improve Siri. Plus rumours of improved Siri for iOS 12 seems to say they know it needs to improve and will be focusing on it.
Just because Apple can’t sell its piss poor excuse of a smart speaker doesn’t mean Amazon and Google are having a hard time. As far i can tell, Amazon is selling there’s like crazy.
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From the sounds of it, this isn’t just a drop. Retailers have units with dust piling up on top of the boxes.
Ummm....not sure where you get these weird conclusions from... I never said anything about audiophiles exclusively listening to high end equipment only. I simply asked what you would do about missing lower bass frequencies, lacking midrange, and how to remove the sound signature that Apple added to Apple music when played on a homepod. You know, the same sound signature that many audiophiles tend to not like? Because Apple's way is not how the artist intended for the recording to sound. Maybe they tried to fix it in the latest update, where many users were complaining about how songs sound different all of a sudden, the bass was decreased, etc. Speaking of which, wouldn't you hate not being able to at least mess with the EQ since it's not flat?
I guess all with all of that being said, it bring's me back to my original point. Why not get some equal to or cheaper speakers, set up throughout your house for better sound? You can always get a vastly superior assistant to Siri, while being able to playback 24bit/192kHz, any file type, with full control and eq.
No, what you tried to do was shift the meaning of my original post to try and take a dig at the HomePod by listing a bunch of irrelevant "faults" the HomePod supposedly has.
How the artist intended? You mean over-processed, synthesized and "fake" stereo sound? Do you have any idea how most music is recorded?
Let me know when other speakers can tune themselves to your room (and no, Sonos Trueplay and the Google Home Max are nowhere near the level of what the HomePod does, as has been debated to death conclusively here before). And be setup as easily as the HomePod.
Vastly superior? I guess, when I need to play Trivial Pursuit and ask a bunch of stupid questions then I'll consider an alternative. No wait, I won't. I don't need other companies mining my data for their own profit. Meanwhile Siri works with all my devices, does all the tasks I ask of it and works great with all my devices throughout my house (door locks, garage doors, lawn sprinklers, alarm, window blinds and lights). I'm not sure what Google or Amazon are supposedly able to do better with my home automation than what I already do( and do with security/encryption and minus the data mining).
I suspected it wasn't selling well when I saw this earlier this week. It's unusual to see a recent model Apple product on sale in Oz.
https://www.catch.com.au/product/apple-homepod-white-1396715/?st=2&sid=homepod
https://www.catch.com.au/product/apple-homepod-white-1396715/?st=2&sid=homepod
Wow. Not just a ripoff. But a total ripoff. Really.
It's clear you know nothing about HomePod's underlying technology.
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You claim to be a sound engineer and audiophile, so I asked you about a couple of the downfalls that the homepod has, and how you would correct them. How is that "shifting" your post?
I hope you aren't serious by pretty much claiming that Apple has "fixed/corrected" every song on Apple music for the homepod. Fake stereo? So all the folks who mix and master, and use REAL professional equipment are doing it wrong? Some imagination you have. I guess sound engineers need to sell their equipment, and use an Ipad like you.
Since when do "sound engineers" and "audiophiles" prefer a preset configuration? As in no EQ, and no ability to shape the sound to their liking? I hope you know that you have no credibility left if you really believe the things in your own post.
It's not even up for debate on how vastly superior the other voice assistants are compared to Siri. Even the Apple fanboys will call you out on that. Especially when it comes to support for so many products in home automation, without the bugs and lacking products that homekit supports.
Many claim home max to be better than homepod fyi, but both are in the same category to me. I'd still rather a quality pair of speakers and a chromecast audio over a Google home max, and I'd consider an echo and everything else over homepod.
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Right from the second these were announced the near-universal reaction was they were over-priced and under-featured. Now that is a typical (often unfair) reaction to many new Apple products but in this case, I think those criticisms are warranted. Because of their design they are utterly unusable for home theater applications, major features like stereo pairing and Airplay 2 don't work, there's no way to plug any audio source into it, it doesn't stream anything but Apple Music, and it's no secret that Siri comes in second to pretty much every other voice technology out there. I don't know why anyone would be surprised that sales are low-ish, this was always going to be a niche product and even worse, it's a crippled, incomplete niche product as of today (I don't doubt that it sounds good but honestly I don't think that's enough to sell large volume considering the flaws).
So yeah, make a new version that is less expensive, with a new, much better Siri, that recognizes and supports multiple users/voices, that supports stereo and Airplay 2, that is useable in both design and function for home theater, that has ports (1/8" analog, optical, HDMI with passthrough), and that doesn't leave stains on your woodwork, and people might buy them in some larger numbers.
So yeah, make a new version that is less expensive, with a new, much better Siri, that recognizes and supports multiple users/voices, that supports stereo and Airplay 2, that is useable in both design and function for home theater, that has ports (1/8" analog, optical, HDMI with passthrough), and that doesn't leave stains on your woodwork, and people might buy them in some larger numbers.
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Where have I ever mentioned anything about Apple "fixing every song" on Apple Music? Oh right, I have never done that. So why are you suddenly bringing up a completely irrelevant topic that has NOTHING to do with anything I've said?
Where have I ever mentioned that people who master songs are doing it wrong? Oh right, I haven't said that either.
I use an iPad instead of professional gear? I use an iPad ALONG with my other gear, which I've mentioned here previously. Very lame attempt to try and insult my abilities or what equipment I use. At least you're consistent.
Audiophiles prefer a "preset" configuration? Again, where have I ever stated that? Oops, another fabrication by you to try and move the goalposts again. BTW, have you actually used any high-end home audio gear? Many preamps/amps lack tone controls, let alone EQ. The "pure audiophile" thinks of their amplification system as "a wire with gain", as in it neither adds nor takes away anything from the music. Your suggestion that audiophiles "shape the sound to their liking" is rubbish.
Most reviews claim HomePod better than Home Max. A few claim otherwise. Which makes perfect sense. Any speaker, depending on the room and where it's placed, can sound better or worse than another speaker. Someone seeing better sound from a Home Max in their experience doesn't make it better - it just makes it better for their use. The fact the majority of the reviews say the HomePod is better shows that their choice to do real-time room adjustments was the right choice - it sounds better for most users in most circumstances. Doesn't make it perfect for everyone, but better overall for most.
Yah, they certainly had this coming. Had this have a line input, I would have purchased one right away to use as my primary entertainment system speaker.
I'm an Apple Music subscriber with the full Apple ecosystem, but they're out of their minds for thinking many people aren't using these expensive speakers primarily with their TVs with the added benefit of pairing their smart devices.
I'm an Apple Music subscriber with the full Apple ecosystem, but they're out of their minds for thinking many people aren't using these expensive speakers primarily with their TVs with the added benefit of pairing their smart devices.
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Me too. I'm another one of those who'd be saying "I'm an Apple fanboi and usually buy everything Apple, but...".
I'm really intrigued by what Apple have done with audio design with HomePod, and in times gone by, when I was more careless with my money I'd have bought one as soon as it was released. Being a single middle-aged man I'm quite happy to drop large amounts of cash on audio equipment, and often have, so the price doesn't particularly concern me.
But the lack of flexibility in how it's deployed, with it's total dependance on Siri and Airplay and the fact that doesn't play well with AppleTV or a Mac used as a media centre, have meant that even a long term resident of the Apple walled-garden like me, can't see the value in it, or even how I could properly deploy it.
Most perplexing/worrying to me, is that it's been released - late - with it's software support still so severely half-baked. It's not a mainstream Apple product by any means, but to me it's symptomatic of Apple these days: a lumbering, bureaucratic, behemoth, captive to secret, Machiavellian - yet deluded - long term strategies, which just can't get anything properly done.
The Apple audio engineers who developed HomePod must be infuriated by the way that Siri, and the vapourware "AirPlay 2" have crippled the poor thing. Hopefully software updates will eventually help it to deliver on some of it's promise. But it's not a good look.
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For comparison, it took two years for the iPod to sell one million units.
What’s considered “good sales”? Are we comparing this to something more common like iPhones or what? Because this is an overly expensive smart speaker. The market for this product is going to be ALOT smaller. 200,000 a month paying $350 just to talk to Siri seems like a lot of anything
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If they’re a casual listener that cares about audio quality and they’re comparing google home max at $400 vs HomePod at $350, yes. They care
So you are saying that Apple Music played on the homepod sounds the same as the exact same song airplayed through X,Y,Z music service? Because everyone else says otherwise based on forums, reviews, etc. So Apple is adding extra processing and algorithms to its songs. Therefore, what conclusion can we come to? Either it will be better or worse than the original recording. And who would know BEST what the original recording SHOULD sound like, others than the original artist and mixer themselves? No wonder so many people returned the homepod because of its artificial sound.
Anyone who claims that the ipad can be used for anything besides the basics in audio production, automatically gets disqualified in my book, no offense. A much cheaper device can run protools, reason, etc way better than anything the gimped ipad apps can provide. Why limit yourself to the most basic apps, when you can run a full studio suite from a laptop for the same or cheaper price?
You claimed the homepod is the best speaker you can buy for its size? So many people disagree with you, as most people don't live in a small box, nor like artificial processed mono sound. For the same or cheaper price, you can get much louder, better quality speakers than the homepod. There is a plethora of average to good speakers that will run circles around the homepod. If you are a sound engineer, with even the least amount of experience, you would know this for a fact. Apple's hype and marketing can only go but so far to those who are ignorant of the choices outside of the walled "garden".
I disagree, I have seen more reviews saying the Max is a better buy than the homepod. Not only with sound quality, but as far as AI and home automation. Well you get the same abilities and automation experience whether you buy the mini or the home. The max just adds SQ on top, so no limiting features because of the tier product you buy
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And for that reason, more people would prefer the Max because of its ability to play any source, get louder, and have arguably better quality than the homepod. Not to mention better AI and home automation.
I personally wouldn't buy either smart speakers, but have a mini/home with a chromecast + any possible pair of speakers for a superior musical experience. Not to mention, you can have a home theater setup as well.
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