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Very happy with my Unifi UAP-AC-LR setup. One per floor, best setup ever. Looking at getting UXG-Pro when released.
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My current modem is pretty old … need to update to get "modern" speeds. That's job one. Then a better wifi router that my current Airport. Just wondering about an all-in-one.
Ubiquiti UDM (Dream Machine). Very nice AiO.
 
The average user does care about WiFi 6,7 or 47 unless they are scammed by marketing (like what has been done with 24 bit audio). They just want something that works and is easy which was the brilliance of the airport platform.

In dense deployments ( e.g., densely populated apartment buildings where every unit has their own LAN) Wi-Fi 5 ( and lower) don't work all that great. It isn't just all about "faster" and "fastest".

Plume , Eero , Amplifi just mainly work too

HomePod is DOA because Amazon crushed them with their 60 buck Shows for the kitchen and Bedroom and will bury them with their upcoming Hirez audio only device.

DOA? This is like the initial Apple Watch talk about how it was a horrible product never going anywhere on the first iteration implementation.

People act like Airport had some huge market share of the router market. Best I could dig up on a quick search was this one which puts Airport at about 10% of the market ( well n market at the time).


Buy the time Apple "quit" that share was probably smaller. ( probably quit around 2013 and milked the cash cow after that. )

HomePods ? between 4-6%

early on 6 ( with 3.96M )

a while back 5 ( 5% of 76M => 3.8M )
more recent 4 ( context matters though : 66% year over year growth in sales to 2.6M in a quarter )

It is growing. Slower growth than the much lower priced products, but still growth. Pricing is in part the problem and Apple is stubborn about changing prices when they goof. 2.6M at $200/unit is $520M revenue a quarter. If just double that for year's (four quarter total) that is a $1B per year. Doing a billion dollar a year business is 'dead'? That is pretty warped hand waving. If Apple's margins are about 25% that is a $250M/yr cash flow. ( there is a decent chance that Apple makes more direct money (realized income in the bank) selling smart speakers than Amazon does. )


The Mac is at 6-8% is it "DOA" ? Product growth is not death. And Apple doesn't have to get to double digit overall share to have a winner. if it is profitable at 4% that is far better than an unprofitable 15% share. There about zero upside to trying to "buy" market share here ( or in the router or AppleTV spaces).


Apple really has turned into IBM or Xerox. Showing up at the party early and then having someone else end up taking their date home with them.

HomePod was not early to party at all. Maybe hand waving "early" if talking about a Sonos speaker with smarts inside the box. HomePod isn't trying to be an mainstream Echo.

Airport early? Not really true there either. Apple did the "have to do admin from an app" as a first mover but in the router biz? Not that early at all.

AppleTV. Again not really a first mover for the basic product.

Apple is a bit like IBM and Xerox because probably making some fat margins on the HomePod so are in 'slow motion' to fix the problems.
 
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Moving into a new house with gigabit cable and I decided to go with an Eero setup (Eero Pro x3) despite most testing revealing it's rarely the top performer in terms of speed. Eero seems to be the closest thing to Apple and the simplicity of the Airport line, which I've been using for decades. Eero may lose out on pure speed but they get high marks for coverage, stability of signal, smooth handoffs between nodes, reliability, and generally fuss-free operation. If I ever need to muck around with router settings on web pages I know I messed up somewhere, it's not fun.

Only things I would wish for (besides faster speeds of course) is more than 2 ethernet ports, many routers have 4 ports each, and more comprehensive monitoring history of connected device bandwidth.
 
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In dense deployments ( e.g., densely populated apartment buildings where every unit has their own LAN) Wi-Fi 5 ( and lower) don't work all that great. It isn't just all about "faster" and "fastest".

Plume , Eero , Amplifi just mainly work too



DOA? This is like the initial Apple Watch talk about how it was a horrible product never going anywhere on the first iteration implementation.

People act like Airport had some huge market share of the router market. Best I could dig up on a quick search was this one which puts Airport at about 10% of the market ( well n market at the time).


Buy the time Apple "quit" that share was probably smaller. ( probably quit around 2013 and milked the cash cow after that. )

HomePods ? between 4-6%

early on 6 ( with 3.96M )

a while back 5 ( 5% of 76M => 3.8M )
more recent 4 ( context matters though : 66% year over year growth in sales to 2.6M in a quarter )

It is growing. Slower growth than the much lower priced products, but still growth. Pricing is in part the problem and Apple is stubborn about changing prices when they goof. 2.6M at $200/unit is $520M revenue a quarter. If just double that for year's (four quarter total) that is a $1B per year. Doing a billion dollar a year business is 'dead'? That is pretty warped hand waving. If Apple's margins are about 25% that is a $250M/yr cash flow. ( there is a decent chance that Apple makes more direct money (realized income in the bank) selling smart speakers than Amazon does. )


The Mac is at 6-8% is it "DOA" ? Product growth is not death. And Apple doesn't have to get to double digit overall share to have a winner. if it is profitable at 4% that is far better than an unprofitable 15% share. There about zero upside to trying to "buy" market share here ( or in the router or AppleTV spaces).




HomePod was not early to party at all. Maybe hand waving "early" if talking about a Sonos speaker with smarts inside the box. HomePod isn't trying to be an mainstream Echo.

Airport early? Not really true there either. Apple did the "have to do admin from an app" as a first mover but in the router biz? Not that early at all.

AppleTV. Again not really a first mover for the basic product.

Apple is a bit like IBM and Xerox because probably making some fat margins on the HomePod so are in 'slow motion' to fix the problems.
Apple Leaves routers at 10% but looks good at 8% and doesn't have to get to double digits to "win" on the Homepod? Pick a lane with your argument. :)
 
or you can buy them on amazon for $20 less and have them delivered in 2 days like I just did...
I’m hoping that the (sum) Apple retail locations stock eero 6 on November 2nd!! We’ll see this week!

wish list: usb onboard to accommodate print sharing.
 
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