And thus it cycles back - is that the market Apple intended or wants Homepod to compete in?
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HomePod HomePod Discontinued... Discussion.
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And thus it cycles back - is that the market Apple intended or wants Homepod to compete in?
Your guess is as good as mine. I really don’t know what market Apple are aiming it at in all honesty? I don’t think it’s a good enough product for true audiophiles due to it being so limited and for the general household I don’t think it offers the value for money you get from Amazon. So who is it aimed at? People here own them and suggest it’s an extension to Apple TV but then that’s another small market. I don’t think Apple had a preference who they wanted to buy it and they tested the market with their offering I would say.
We know it’s sounds great but then so do other streaming speakers out there for similar money. It’s unique in that it works well with other Apple products but then not every Apple consumer is buying a HomePod. I guess we’ll learn in the coming years whether Apple intend to continue in this sector with any dedication and commitment.
And you are that rare instance I was talking about lol 😉. This is not only people on message boards. It’s Apple tech analysts. People who get paid to look into this stuff. But bolt’s gospel with his arbitrary figures is fine. I find it entertaining.Was the iPod mini a failure?
What he doesn't agree with is probably people reading too much into the statements or acts of corporations and preaching their own interpretations as gospel
I have a vague memory of the iPod Mini. I was in the military and overseas at the time so didn’t have much time to keep up on tech news back then. If Apple couldn’t sell its original manufacturing stock in 3-4 years and had a permanent price drop (very un-Apple) during that time to move units and they were taking a hit on it, then sure. Eventually something will drop so low in price that demand will increase which is what happened with the HomePod. Once the company not only doesn’t break even but loses money, it becomes a failure.
Whats your opinion? HomePod- success or failure?
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I think I made a mistake by returning my two Homepods a week after I got them. I should have kept them, and sold them now for a profit 😆
I first got two Homepod minis for loyalty points from my phone company. They do a good job with Siri commands, and sound surprisingly decent considering their limitations. They made me really curious about the sound of full-size Homepods.
Then, AppleTV support for a stereo pair of Homepods was announced, with immersive surround sound, even mentioning of Dolby Atmos. So I got a pair.
Long story short, the sound was disappointing. Bass was always boomy, no matter the source, the mids sounded honky, and surround sound was completely absent with the AppleTV (let alone Atmos). After trying a myriad of placement options (starting with the exact positions as described in Apple’s KB) I gave up, and realised that they would never come anywhere close to my reasonably cheap Wharfedale speakers and mid-level Sony AVR for TV/movie sound. On top of that, AV sync (lipsync) was all over the place, and different with every AppleTV app. So I returned them.
I still have the minis, and to everybody in my household they sound small, but somehow far less objectionable than the Homepods. I’m going to keep them.
Sorry to be a dissenting voice, but I for one do not mourn the demise of the Homepod.
I first got two Homepod minis for loyalty points from my phone company. They do a good job with Siri commands, and sound surprisingly decent considering their limitations. They made me really curious about the sound of full-size Homepods.
Then, AppleTV support for a stereo pair of Homepods was announced, with immersive surround sound, even mentioning of Dolby Atmos. So I got a pair.
Long story short, the sound was disappointing. Bass was always boomy, no matter the source, the mids sounded honky, and surround sound was completely absent with the AppleTV (let alone Atmos). After trying a myriad of placement options (starting with the exact positions as described in Apple’s KB) I gave up, and realised that they would never come anywhere close to my reasonably cheap Wharfedale speakers and mid-level Sony AVR for TV/movie sound. On top of that, AV sync (lipsync) was all over the place, and different with every AppleTV app. So I returned them.
I still have the minis, and to everybody in my household they sound small, but somehow far less objectionable than the Homepods. I’m going to keep them.
Sorry to be a dissenting voice, but I for one do not mourn the demise of the Homepod.
My Homepod still works after getting it not long after release, but it is hard not to feel dismayed at the fact that it is no longer snappy quick at doing anything else except playing Apple Music; and it is not as a result of my doing. I am not sure what went wrong during the OS upgrades. I think Apple should be taking some responsibility for these issues as it used to work better before all the updates and they do not seem to be addressing this.
Anybody start a class action on this?
Anybody start a class action on this?
Financially, for the company.
As a single product, I love it. Bought two more even after the discontinuation announcement making my total nine. Siri does have a tendency to go full on stupid but it’s software and I have a reasonable expectation that software can be buggy and glitchy. I think it sounds great and I’m no audiophile so take that with a grain of salt. I’m a smart home enthusiast first and foremost which is where I absolutely adore it. Integrating it into scenes and automations and voice control/personal assistant. Being able to send a text or answer a call while I’m showering and stuff like that. Closing my garage doors when my hands are full of groceries.
As I line, well, I also have nine HomePod Minis if that answers it.
Financially for Apple is where I think it failed.
Consumer electronics history is filled with products that didn't sell no matter how low the price. HomePod sold 15M units and created $4.5B in revenue. It was a success at the consumer level. Just wasn't profitable. New technologies and new ventures often aren't.
Look at the clickthroughs. A 'love' video gets marginal traction, a 'hate' video gets huge attention. Those Microsoft types just love a good Apple bashing, and they are 93% of the market, after all.
Apple has a history of experimenting with an early version of a product, watching it not meet expectations, and pivoting to a new/improved and more profitable version sometimes immediately, sometimes after a hiatus. The first Apple TV, for example. iPod Mini, iPod Shuffle, Apple Hi Fi, Moblie Me, there are plenty more.
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There was a software update somewhere around iOS 13.X that bricked many HomePods. I can deal with the occasional software hiccups but I feel terrible for whoever had their HomePods bricked during that update fiasco. Hopefully they’ll continue to update them or at least work out the bugs for many years and I don’t see why they wouldn’t at this time. Just like every other Apple product I own, which is many... oh well, we’ll wait and see what happens on the next update.
Was the iPod mini a failure?
What he doesn't agree with is probably people reading too much into the statements or acts of corporations and preaching their own interpretations as gospel
Bingo. Right on, nicho.
Apple made an announcement in a pandemic during a chip shortage about focusing on a product that they just recently launched. It's not to be taken literally.
Exactly right. Apple Music has been a fantastic success. Spotify is littered with non-paying customers, Amazon users are inflated as no one really uses the service they just get it for free with a Prime membership, and YouTube is about video and paying ones way out of ads.
It's why Alexa and Google hockey pucks aren't about audio, they're just microphones for lighbulbs and homework. HomePod is all about the music. Just like the keynote introducing the product said. The only people lumping HomePod in with "smart speakers" are social media Apple haters.
I just finished resetting my Homepod, things are back to normal. Lights turn on and off quickly. Maybe it just needed a reset. I don't know why I did not think of doing it months ago. Either way, I am pleased. My wife thought it was stupid that I bought it in the first place, until I would come home from work and she is listening to Apple Music all the time.
You've got to make up your mind, you can't have it both ways. HomePod is either the most overpriced and expensive "smart speaker for the lightbulb and homework crowd" or a decently priced "single-room Bose wave radio replacement for an audiophile". You keep bouncing between the two.
In the world's biggest streaming music market, the United States, Apple Music is bigger than Spotify and the rest. And I don't know anyone who uses Apple Music's interface. That's what Siri is for. That's what HomePod is for. For someone who defends Alexa and Google's IoT voice integration its curious that you would criticize Apple for a physical UI.
Pandemic. Massive unemployment. Chinese workforce ravaged by disease. Historic levels of supply chain disruption. Chip shortage. You act like these things aren't happening. For all we know, HomePod 2 was designed and in the prototype testing stage last April when the whole world shut down and Apple made the decision to thin the line in their niche accessory businesses. Not much different than the March keynote that never was.
The Mini is half of a one-two punch in speakers, no different than AirPods Pro and AirPods Max. When it returns, HomePod 2 will no longer be a money-loser. And the HomePod is a $700 product. That's the cost when you buy 2 of them to create a Stereo pair, something an audiophile would do.
Bingo, again.
And they act like its business-as-usual for Apple here in a pandemic with the worst economy and the worst supply chain crisis in human history.
You mean like a $350 speaker that sits on a shelf, doesn't get any physical wear-and-tear, and doesn't have any buttons to press?
I know people who still have speakers they bought in 1983 while in high school. Speakers are not a high-turn item. They're supposed to last a decade or more.
I’m always anxious about updating my HomePod because of the bricking issue.
You're looking at this all wrong, and thus the confusion.
HomePod is an Apple Music accessory. That's all it is. It's a speaker, a legitimately high-quality stereo system replacement, not a microphone, not a hockey puck.
Apple Music has around 75 million subscribers. And unlike Spotify, all of them paying customers. Apple earns around $13B per quarter from Apple Music. Staggering.
Every HomePod owner is also an Apple Music subscriber. It's Apple's gift to streamers. Not only could we replace our CD's with AAC's but now we can replace our old iPod docking systems and Bose Wave systems too. It sold well at $349 but sold much better at $299 and even $199. It's not a "smart speaker". It's an Apple Music speaker. Not everyone uses their iPhone and earbuds to listen to music. Kids do, but grown adults are busy people and don't have time for such indulgences. We use CarPlay when we drive and we use HomePod when we're home. The speakers in our lives have lasted for decades. HomePod shall too.
Same here! My wife has gone from someone only into the music that I am playing to someone who looks forward to showering and making-up each morning and asking HomePod to "play the top songs from 1996". Little by little she's grasping the lingo and the commands. And in the summer, I've set her up with Shortcuts that allow her to tap 1 button on the Widgets screen and get 2 HomePod's (back deck, swimming pool) and 1 Apple TV (great room) to start playing Arena Rock Radio, every song one she loves, never a dud. Such a great product.
and a quick search re Spotify says they have 155 million 'paying' subscribers.....
Spotify signed up a record 30 million subscribers in 2020
Spotify had a strong performance in the final quarter of last year with growth across monthly users and subscribers, as well as an improvement in the downward trend for average revenue per user. Read on for the full results…
Spotify: number of premium users worldwide 2025| Statista
Spotify has a growing number of subscribers. The amount of premiun users has nearly doubled since 2019.
www.statista.com
Don't forget Amazon and Google don't only sell the 'hockey puck microphones' that you keep referring to, they do also have more expensive, better sounding options which are cheaper than the HomePod. I don't think anyone in their right mind would be comparing an Amazon Dot against a HomePod, or even a HomePod mini to be honest. the only reason to compare the two is you can connect the Dot to a decent quality speaker if you have one, and therefore its a good cheap option if you want voice control without spending too much money.
Bolt just remember not all of Amazon and Google’s speakers are hockey pucks. They make bigger speakers with better sound that the ‘hockey pucks’. Sometimes you have to use earphones to listen to music, i.e when you are out in public or if it’s late at night or if there are others around who you would be disturbing. Speakers have traditionally lasted a long time. However smart speakers have an added element of software so we don’t know how long they will last. It’s a relatively new market so we don’t know how long they will last.
I’ve had about 7 months of free Apple Music in recent years so you’re wrong about it not being ‘littered with non-paying customers’. Apple are constantly offering free months and giving away 3 months free with new purchases. You also don’t seem to realise that Amazon don’t just sell the Echo dot which is what I presume you are referring to when you say ‘hockey pucks’. They sell various devices and these sound better than the dots which are also fine in small rooms. If Amazon music is also not being used by many then why is it constantly being updated and expanded? I think you’ll find it’s quite widely used.
I don’t keep bouncing between the two because my opinion remains the same throughout this thread. You just don’t seem to want to listen to anybody’s opinion if it doesn’t align with yours or process what is being said.
We not are talking about one country, this is an international forum and the views are global. I couldn’t care less what people do in your country to put it bluntly.
China was back up and running by June last year and faced less disruption than the rest of the world in terms of manufacturing. No excuses there.
How many Apple users are serious audiophiles and what is the market potential in your opinion?
I completely agree. I used to own an echo second generation and I currently own an echo show 8. Both sounded very decent. That’s not even considering the echo plus and the studio or echo show 10, all of which sound even better than the aforementioned speakers.
The thing is headphones are used by adults and most cars don’t come with CarPlay. Apple Music is also made up of a percentage of people using it on free trials like any other service. I think you’re looking at it all wrong and getting a bit confused. That happens when you get older though.