HomePod HomePod Discontinued... Discussion.

[boltjames]

Remarkable in that it was in no way remarkable whatsoever, which of course sealed its fate from day one.

It sold in the neighborhood of 15,000,000 units and produced $4.5 billion dollars in revenue. For the 3 years of its run it produced as much revenue as Sonos did each year- the entire Sonos company. HomePod is a single sku. That's financially remarkable.

As for the product itself, just a small enclosure producing room-filling sound with deep bass, strong mids, and quality highs is functionally remarkable.

The fate of the HomePod was obvious a year ago, and the only question was if Apple was going to double down and really commit to home audio with a suite of products, or if they were going to scale back and pretend that the HomePod never happened. And the answer to that question was pretty easy to guess.

HomePod is alive and well. This year in the form of the more affordable Mini. In a year or two in the form of HomePod Max or HomePod Pro or whatever they'll call the second iteration of the audiophile version. It sold 15,000,000 units. It produced $4.5 billion dollars in revenue. On an annual basis, the $1.5 billion in revenue is 3x the annual revenue of the average NFL team.

 

[boltjames]

when the HomePod suddenly became available at a Sonos price, I pulled the trigger and I absolutely love them. That's why I hope Apple doesn't abandon the larger HomePod in the long term. They not only provide great audio, but extend bluetooth for my few HomeKit BTLE devices nicely as well. I really think if they can offer a $200 unit, they'd sell. But I'm no marketing expert.

Exactly. To those of us who don't care about doorbells and search results, the HomePod was exactly what we wanted it to be- 50 million songs in a small package making room-filling audiophile caliber sound. A better sounding Bose Wave CD System. A more convenient Sonos. Easily worth $299, a s steal at $199.

And that's all it needed to be. 15,000,000 units sold is a hell of a lot. The only reason HomePod is viewed as some failure is because social media loves a negative Apple story and a few were gullible enough to believe what they heard. Apple will make a new HomePod Pro that sounds as good as the original and makes their required margins at $199 and that will be that. Discontinued or not, HomePod is my favorite Apple product, the best thing they've done since the iPhone itself.

 

[boltjames]

No one is toting them around and putting them "in the middle of the picnic table", etc.

In the summer, I keep two of my HomePod's outdoors- one on the patio, the other by the pool, quite literally "the middle of the picnic table" for me.

 

[AEWest]

It's a good design in theory. No different than an $80,000 pair of B&Os. But I think the HomePod was limited by software in what it could do. With higher end 360 speakers, you can tell the system whether you're having a party, listening from the other room, sitting directly in front, etc. and they'll adjust. They also have the oomph to act as directional speakers when desired, and you can use a microphone to carefully map the space for better results. The HomePod just played a few notes and listened for delay and overall EQ and that was it.

Paying extra to have a rear facing speaker that needs to be electronically adjusted when up against a wall doesn't make sense for my use case - I don't move these speakers around, they just stay on the shelf.
If the Homepod did have a battey and sat on a chargeable base like the Sonos Move, I believe it would have been much more successful.

In terms of 15M Homepods supposedly sold, I find that hard to believe. I know several people who own Sonos speakers, I don't know anyone who has a Homepod. If they did sell that many, I would have likely run into someone who has one by now.

 

[turbineseaplane]

In terms of 15M Homepods supposedly sold, I find that hard to believe. I know several people who own Sonos speakers, I don't know anyone who has a Homepod. If they did sell that many, I would have likely run into someone who has one by now.

I agree.

I know dozens of people that are all in on Apple everything and I don’t know a single person with a HomePod.

Most everyone has all Sonos as its much more flexible and has options for all the situations they need (portable, different room types and sizes, sound bar and sub at TV, etc)

 

[benshive]

What will you do with your multiple Homepods, now that there is a very real risk that Apple may not support them deep into the future or enable any updates.

This is why I really don't like that it doesn't have an aux in port, or at least just support a standard bluetooth connection. Currently we're relying on Apple to continue supporting the device, or an old iOS device that remains on an old version of iOS, to keep all of these devices from becoming large paperweights. Audio equipment is usually something that tends to stand the test of time well. I have audio equipment that my grandfather used to use that still works great. The HomePod has some great speakers in it that I think are going to go to waste more and more moving forward.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

HomePod is alive and well. This year in the form of the more affordable Mini. In a year or two in the form of HomePod Max or HomePod Pro or whatever they'll call the second iteration of the audiophile version. It sold 15,000,000 units. It produced $4.5 billion dollars in revenue. On an annual basis, the $1.5 billion in revenue is 3x the annual revenue of the average NFL team.

Seems odd to discontinue a product before an alternative is available in the guise of a bigger version though. Apple at this point in time are claiming they are discontinuing the bigger HomePod in order to focus their attention on the HomePod Mini, so maybe the cheaper market is their focus after all? They did reduce the price of the original HomePod back in 2019 due to ‘lacklustre sales’, so I think in reality they are trying to get customers back from Amazon. Audiophiles aren’t going to be interested in the HomePod until they introduce a way to plug in other equipment. That was the main criticism when comparing it to other smart speakers from the likes of Sonos.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Seems odd to discontinue a product before an alternative is available in the guise of a bigger version though. Apple at this point in time are claiming they are discontinuing the bigger HomePod in order to focus their attention on the HomePod Mini, so maybe the cheaper market is their focus after all?

Very accurate.

I can't emphasize this enough, but Matthew Panzarino is very well connected and sourced and the messaging he is getting out there is absolutely a precisely crafted narrative Apple wants out in public, just not through their own PR (that's not how they roll).

They are out on HomePod stuff, save for the Mini, at this time.

 

[boltjames]

Seems odd to discontinue a product before an alternative is available in the guise of a bigger version though. Apple at this point in time are claiming they are discontinuing the bigger HomePod in order to focus their attention on the HomePod Mini, so maybe the cheaper market is their focus after all?

The pandemic has changed everything, supply chains are strained worldwide, decisions need to be made on which products are essential, which products can be launched, which ones need to make room for others. It's a niche audience, someone capable of spending $600 for a pair is a bit of a rarity in these tough times, and it looks like it had to go because it wasn't making enough profit at reduced retails. Good product, great sound, but missing some important networking features and built too expensively to support the $200-$300 retail that consumers have signaled they are interested in. With the work on the Mini and the supply chain issues, makes sense that the HomePod II wasn't built in parallel. Discontinuing the HomePod, telling everyone "get a Mini" puts the focus on the new speaker so people don't wait it out.

And the HomePod sitting right next to the Mini in retail stores isn't helping the Mini, the A/B comparisons that a consumer can do on the spot will automatically put the Mini at a disadvantage.

Audiophiles aren’t going to be interested in the HomePod until they introduce a way to plug in other equipment. That was the main criticism when comparing it to other smart speakers from the likes of Sonos.

Agreed, Apple needs to do one of two things: Either add more features to make it worth the $349 they wanted originally (Bluetooth, battery) or take away a few of the microphones or speakers to achieve the $249-ish pricepoint consumers are telling them they want to pay.

HomePod is a miracle for those of us who value sound more than good enough to punt our old stereo systems and analog media to the curb and go fully wireless with Apple Music's 50 million songs. But it seems likely that all of us who wanted that have one and Apple has undercut it with the cheap Mini. It makes perfect sense why Apple would take a pause and revisit in a year or two when supply chains are thriving again and HomePod 1.0 consumers are ready to pay for an upgrade.

 

[boltjames]

In terms of 15M Homepods supposedly sold, I find that hard to believe. I know several people who own Sonos speakers, I don't know anyone who has a Homepod. If they did sell that many, I would have likely run into someone who has one by now.

Datapoints are out there, here's an example detailing a single quarter in 2019:

"(At 2.6 million) Apple shipped one million more HomePods in Q4 2019 than it did in Q4 2018 when it shipped 1.6 million, marking a 65 percent increase in growth. That didn't translate to a major increase in market share though as Apple ships so many fewer speakers than other brands."

It had a 3 year run, 12 quarters, the initial launch was a burst, then the reduced price was a burst, extrapolate 2.6M units in Q4 it leads you to 5.2 million or more for a full year, times 3 years.....just a guess but 15M is probably in the ballpark.

Apple’s HomePod Places Sixth in Global Smart Speaker Market in Q4 2019

Apple shipped an estimated 2.6 million HomePods during the fourth quarter of 2019, earning it 4.7 percent of the smart speaker market, according to...

www.macrumors.com

 

[za9ra22]

It sold in the neighborhood of 15,000,000 units and produced $4.5 billion dollars in revenue. For the 3 years of its run it produced as much revenue as Sonos did each year- the entire Sonos company. HomePod is a single sku. That's financially remarkable.

As for the product itself, just a small enclosure producing room-filling sound with deep bass, strong mids, and quality highs is functionally remarkable.



HomePod is alive and well. This year in the form of the more affordable Mini. In a year or two in the form of HomePod Max or HomePod Pro or whatever they'll call the second iteration of the audiophile version. It sold 15,000,000 units. It produced $4.5 billion dollars in revenue. On an annual basis, the $1.5 billion in revenue is 3x the annual revenue of the average NFL team.

Well, you keep repeating this production volume and revenue figure, with the assertion that for Apple, the HomePod was a great business success.

However, Apple don't typically discontinue successful products unless they have a new one ready to roll. This is particularly true in highly competitive markets, where they know how important sales inertia is. Stop production while a new product arrives, and customers will buy competitor products instead because they are there and available. Customers and markets simply do not wait, and of all companies, Apple know this really well.

The only conclusion you really can draw is that the HomePod was not profitable. And honestly it is not hard to see why this reality may be the more accurate one. Too expensive, FAR too expensive in fact for the much narrower niche of features and capabilities. It is also not hard to guess why now. And that's because they will have calculated at the outset how many needed to be sold to break even on the development and manufacturing costs, and that they stopped production at that point, because there was no profit to be had from it, and absent any plans to open the ecosystem to make it more functional, no way to make it profitable.

So they focused on a cheaper model that would sell and at least maintain the subscriptions for Apple Music, possibly build on that, and waited until the HomePod supply chain was almost empty, then announced it was being discontinued. It's classic Apple supply-chain management. Not a surprise since Tim Cook was the class-leader in supply chain management while Jobs was still at the helm. He was a master also at ramping up product volume in the supply chain to ensure manufacturing and warehousing were clear of old product while there was still a crest of demand.

I admire the enthusiasm of individuals for the product, but I would bet on Apple's business sense rather more than on enthusiastic users. And in this case I would say that all the signs are that there were simply far-too-few enthusiastic users who wanted to buy one enough to keep the product in production. And I believe that decision was taken ages ago.

I think it's a great shame. It's a great product, though with some dire shortcomings. Price for one, but Apple never have concerned themselves with being a niche at the top of a market segment, because they have always sold product even at premium prices. But due to the narrowness of the ecosystem HomePod supported and the way the competition has evolved, I think they knew pretty early on that the HomePod was likely not going to work out. I believe they wanted to establish themselves as a serious contender in the great-sounding-speaker market, but the HomePod did that. It just didn't make money.

 

[boltjames]

Well, you keep repeating this production volume and revenue figure, with the assertion that for Apple, the HomePod was a great business success.

However, Apple don't typically discontinue successful products unless they have a new one ready to roll. This is particularly true in highly competitive markets, where they know how important sales inertia is. Stop production while a new product arrives, and customers will buy competitor products instead because they are there and available. Customers and markets simply do not wait, and of all companies, Apple know this really well.

The only conclusion you really can draw is that the HomePod was not profitable. And honestly it is not hard to see why this reality may be the more accurate one. Too expensive, FAR too expensive in fact for the much narrower niche of features and capabilities. It is also not hard to guess why now. And that's because they will have calculated at the outset how many needed to be sold to break even on the development and manufacturing costs, and that they stopped production at that point, because there was no profit to be had from it, and absent any plans to open the ecosystem to make it more functional, no way to make it profitable.

So they focused on a cheaper model that would sell and at least maintain the subscriptions for Apple Music, possibly build on that, and waited until the HomePod supply chain was almost empty, then announced it was being discontinued. It's classic Apple supply-chain management. Not a surprise since Tim Cook was the class-leader in supply chain management while Jobs was still at the helm. He was a master also at ramping up product volume in the supply chain to ensure manufacturing and warehousing were clear of old product while there was still a crest of demand.

I admire the enthusiasm of individuals for the product, but I would bet on Apple's business sense rather more than on enthusiastic users. And in this case I would say that all the signs are that there were simply far-too-few enthusiastic users who wanted to buy one enough to keep the product in production. And I believe that decision was taken ages ago.

I think it's a great shame. It's a great product, though with some dire shortcomings. Price for one, but Apple never have concerned themselves with being a niche at the top of a market segment, because they have always sold product even at premium prices. But due to the narrowness of the ecosystem HomePod supported and the way the competition has evolved, I think they knew pretty early on that the HomePod was likely not going to work out. I believe they wanted to establish themselves as a serious contender in the great-sounding-speaker market, but the HomePod did that. It just didn't make money.

Good post.

Look, it could be as simple as a) the IoT is a tired business built around other companies products and b) Apple Music has achieved its goal of being the #1 streaming platform in the US. So a cheap and high margin HomePod Mini serves consumers and from a P&L perspective trumps an expensive and low margin HomePod and that's that.

I'm grateful that I have 4 Space Grey and 1 White and that HomePod helped me discover a new way to listen to music both new and old. Streaming has been great for me and HomePod is how I stream. Nothing changes for me.

 

[Itinj24]

I was just doing some thinking and what features were released for the HomePod with iOS 14... Apple are some conniving bastards.

Highly doubt the decision to discontinue the HomePod was made last week. Instead they went ahead and added a feature that the Mini didn’t get. Home theater/default audio. This was done intentionally to try to entice people to get rid of remaining stock. It’s half baked a and possibly rushed out though. Many reports of that feature destroying network speed. Why can’t the Mini get the default audio output feature? I don’t know but I’m sure it will soon. Am I nuking this or does it seem plausible? Thoughts?

And as I sit on the crapper, watching day turn into night, forgetting to turn my bathroom lights on, the ‘ol trusty HomePod in here did the trick. Take that boltjames lol. (Yeah yeah, I could’ve used my phone but Siri is like an angel to my ears).

 

[boltjames]

I was just doing some thinking and what features were released for the HomePod with iOS 14... Apple are some conniving bastards.

Highly doubt the decision to discontinue the HomePod was made last week. Instead they went ahead and added a feature that the Mini didn’t get. Home theater/default audio. This was done intentionally to try to entice people to get rid of remaining stock. It’s half baked a and possibly rushed out though. Many reports of that feature destroying network speed. Why can’t the Mini get the default audio output feature? I don’t know but I’m sure it will soon. Am I nuking this or does it seem plausible? Thoughts?

And as I sit on the crapper, watching day turn into night, forgetting to turn my bathroom lights on, the ‘ol trusty HomePod in here did the trick. Take that boltjames lol. (Yeah yeah, I could’ve used my phone but Siri is like an angel to my ears).

You're alright, Itinj. Let us raise our HomePod's, salute each other, and say the following:

"Hey Siri, play Tomorrow Never Knows. The song, not the iTunes album. The one at the end of Revolver."

 

[Jamie0003]

I love my homepods. I have 3 and was waiting for an updated version for thread support to put in my study, but now I’m not sure what to do. Either I sell them all and replace with minis, which would mean compromising on sound quality, or buying the one I wanted for my study and just continuing to use them till they eventually become obsolete....

 

[Jamie0003]

I just skeptical about long term support. I disconnected my modem, and reset a HomePod. You need to be able to connect to Apple's servers to set it back up (I got an error).

What happens in 6-9 years when the security certificate expires and Apple doesn't release a software update for a discontinued product? How will you set up the HomePod? How will Siri work? AirPlay should be fine, but again, if you have to do a reset because something isn't working, you can't set it back up.

Here's my current set (2 others are elsewhere so you only see 7 of them) Notice how even though Apple discontinued the iPod HiFi way back in 2007, it still works perfectly. In 14 years these will probably not be working even though nothing is wrong with the hardware, but the 28 year old iPod HiFi will sing on.

What makes you think this will happen? You can restore older iPhones by connecting to iTunes, I don’t think Apple has ever bricked a previous device

 

[za9ra22]

I love my homepods. I have 3 and was waiting for an updated version for thread support to put in my study, but now I’m not sure what to do. Either I sell them all and replace with minis, which would mean compromising on sound quality, or buying the one I wanted for my study and just continuing to use them till they eventually become obsolete....

Honestly, the fact it is now a discontinued product means nothing at all in terms of the use of it. And even if Apple decide to allow HomePods to be bricked if they go wrong after support ends, you're still looking 4, 5 or 6 years down the road.

There is zero reason of any sort to allow the choice Apple have made to discontinue this device to change your plans for using it. Zero. It isn't as if your HomePods or mine will cease to work. Even as Apple have decided they can't make a profit out of making it, there is no reason they'd want to compromise the units already out there in use - and a lot of legal liability if they were caught even thinking of doing that.

 

[Htsi]

Favorite speaker for me. Only downside non-WiFi use

 

[za9ra22]

...Am I nuking this or does it seem plausible?...

It isn't even slightly plausible. Once manufacturing costs have been incurred by making them, there's no incentive for Apple to invent a feature to drive business towards them. They would simply ship them to get them into the supply chain, and let them dribble out of retailers until they're gone. Anything else is added cost to them, and no way to get a return.

Apple have added features to get them out into the market - the features, not the product. That gives users something they have demanded, and Apple an opportunity to get practical field testing of ideas.

 

[Itinj24]

You're alright, Itinj. Let us raise our HomePod's, salute each other, and say the following:

"Hey Siri, play Tomorrow Never Knows. The song, not the iTunes album. The one at the end of Revolver."

Glad you found the humor 👍 😆

 

[Itinj24]

It isn't even slightly plausible. Once manufacturing costs have been incurred by making them, there's no incentive for Apple to invent a feature to drive business towards them. They would simply ship them to get them into the supply chain, and let them dribble out of retailers until they're gone. Anything else is added cost to them, and no way to get a return.

Apple have added features to get them out into the market - the features, not the product. That gives users something they have demanded, and Apple an opportunity to get practical field testing of ideas.

Fair enough, makes sense. Just puzzling me why you can’t set the Mini up as default audio.

 

[za9ra22]

Fair enough, makes sense. Just puzzling me why you can’t set the Mini up as default audio.

More than likely that given Apple's secrecy, the engineering teams were not told the product was being discontinued, so kept working and rolled out the feature - leading it on the HomePod, expecting to then add it later to the mini.

 

[Ilikechainrestaurants]

Apple just continues to lag and screw over people who try and go all in on Homekit and Siri.

 

[Htsi]

Apple just continues to lag and screw over people who try and go all in on Homekit and Siri.

Sadly true

 

[boltjames]

Honestly, the fact it is now a discontinued product means nothing at all in terms of the use of it. And even if Apple decide to allow HomePods to be bricked if they go wrong after support ends, you're still looking 4, 5 or 6 years down the road.

There is zero reason of any sort to allow the choice Apple have made to discontinue this device to change your plans for using it. Zero. It isn't as if your HomePods or mine will cease to work. Even as Apple have decided they can't make a profit out of making it, there is no reason they'd want to compromise the units already out there in use - and a lot of legal liability if they were caught even thinking of doing that.

This. Some of the very best Apple customers are HomePod loyalists. There is no risk of obsolescence until there is a suitable replacement at the very least. I’m looking to buy another, might as well do it now.