iPhone activation server is still the same.
I doubt they added features to try and sell remaining stock. I think that what happened was once the initial supply (from 2017-early 2018) started to get low they decided not to order anymore from Inventec & Foxconn.
Thing is, if Apple did something to render my 5 HomePods inoperable, they would lose my $15 a month in Apple Music revenue in a finger snap.
Don’t buy another one now... buy it yesterday. I’m telling you they’re running out fast, if you want it BNIB that is. One online retailer is even marking them up (forget which one but they have em listed at $314)
Yeah, the prices on used one‘s have been steadily creeping up too. It won’t be long before a used one on eBay is MORE than a new one now.
If Apple did that, you'd just start posting about your 5 amazing Apple doorstops.
I think a lot of people were kind of waiting for an update to the full sized model so while they wanted one, they wanted a new one all else being equal. Between the original model and nothing, the original actually looks pretty good, even at $300.
I was just about to come on here and post that. Difficulty selling at 299 so what makes these people think they will sell at 499 and 599? Human nature... People generally want what they can’t have. I bought seven HomePods all at a 199 discount. Was going to wait for the next sale to get the last two but when I heard the discontinuation announcement, I had no choice and bought them at full retail even though I vowed not to. (Well at least one. Still get the 10% military discount at Apple).
Yeah. I can't personally see an integrated ATV/speaker system as in my experience, AppleTV's get significant feature updates about every 3 years which is far too short a lifecycle for a decent set of speakers. I also don't really see how anything improves for Apple by integrating them. Our old ATV's go as hand me downs either to smaller tv's within the house or to other family members, and a sound bar big enough for our main tv would be way oversized for the TV's they eventually end up connected to.
Is that true? I feel like beyond some very basic integrations, nobody has had much success in this space, but among the folks who have reasonably extensive setups and who don't want to use an open source/command line, HomeKit is by far the most complete offering. Google Home and Alexa certainly are nowhere near as complete when you want a setup that has complex routines and isn't primarily controlled by voice.
