HomePod HomePod Discontinued... Discussion.

[boltjames]

It’s not the same old doorbell and same old lightbulb. Doorbells now have facial recognition, package delivery and retrieval recognition. If someone is at my door and I’m watching TV, the image of them pops up in PIP on my TV. In the end, a video doorbell is a button and camera. Not sure what kind of innovation you’re expecting. Lightbulbs are getting thread now and there’s one by LIFX that has a bacteria killing feature. You clearly know nothing about the topic but continue to bash it. There has been an increasing list of new devices that support the smart home.

This is no different than 3D TV or Curved TV which got incremental nuance features year over year and did very little to move the needle. Big picture, Apple isn't in the IoT business and they're not in the Search business, so HomePod shouldn't be held accountable for perceptions about the HomePod as an IoT device (Alexa) or a Search device (Google).

We all know that you despise the smart home and it’s users.

That is not true. I just don't like the fact that IoT is used as a weapon against HomePod and portrayed as some "major Apple failure" when AirPods have the exact same IoT functionality and its never mentioned. And that's by the mainstream media as well as forum posters.

HomePod is a magnificent audiophile-caliber streaming speaker for Apple Music subscribers. Period. What smarthome people do with it is immaterial, they can do the same thing with their iPhones, AirPods, or Macbooks, no reason for HomePod to be singled out as the "ah ha!" failure when all these Apple products are encumbered by the same damn HomeKit functionality.

 

[ElBerserko]

Well, the data says that it shipped 1.9M HomePods to satisfy Q4 of 2019 and shipped 2.9M HomePods to satisfy Q4 of 2020. That indicates a product that is selling significantly better than the year before and would be tracking to 6M sales annually if one doubles the sales of Q4 to account for Q's 1, 2, and 3.

CIRP Says Apple Has Sold 3 Million HomePods in U.S., Suggesting $1 Billion in Sales - Voicebot.ai

A new report by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) says that Apple has sold 3 million HomePods in the U.S. and..

voicebot.ai

This article references a user poll, not shipping estimates, and stated:

"A new report by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) says that Apple has sold 3 million HomePods in the U.S. and nearly doubled its smart speaker market share in the second quarter of 2018. When you multiply that by three million units, total revenue is $1.05 billion. If these numbers turn out to be correct, Apple will have generated more HomePod revenue in first five months of device availability than Sonos’ total sales over its entire 2017 fiscal year for all of its products."

3M units in 5 months, HomePod was sold actively for 36 months, that would mean sales of 21M units, and in 2019 and 2020 the retail dropped significantly probably pushing it up near 30M units. And I'm claiming 15M.

Still doesn't explain why buying a new unit now gets you old stock. If they were truly pushing this volume I wouldn't have received a unit from Apple's Online Store that sat on a shelf for 3 years. It even came with the original software version. If they were being recently manufactured they would have put newer firmware on them. If Apple produced 15M in their initial run and took 3 years to move them that was a seriously big bet they took. I'd like to see any evidence of a HomePod manufactured after 2018.

I like the HomePod, it sounded fantastic when it worked for the couple days I had it. Even considered buying another one to pair it up. By all accounts it should have been a successful product and people who have them really do like them. But it was not successful.

 

[boltjames]

Still doesn't explain why buying a new unit now gets you old stock. If they were truly pushing this volume I wouldn't have received a unit from Apple's Online Store that sat on a shelf for 3 years. It even came with the original software version. If they were being recently manufactured they would have put newer firmware on them. If Apple produced 15M in their initial run and took 3 years to move them that was a seriously big bet they took. I'd like to see any evidence of a HomePod manufactured after 2018.

Apple is an international company. Perhaps where you shop they have older inventory and in Europe, South America, Asia, whatnot, they got the new stuff. Electronics don't have a sell-by date. Perhaps the person in the forecasting division who bought too much got terminated. It's not an indication that HomePod failed.

I like the HomePod, it sounded fantastic when it worked for the couple days I had it.

It's your wi-fi.

 

[Allyance]

That’s what made Acoustics Research so popular. Their AR3 used an acoustic suspension design. HomePod is also an acoustic suspension design. The Mini uses passive radiators instead.

I have a Boston Acoustics sub that uses a passive radiator instead of a ported design as it allowed for a smaller cabinet.

Be retired and low on funds, I cobbled together my home theater system out of two full size Advent speakers that I reconed, on either side of the 55"TV, and two small Advents over the top of the TV for center channel. Rear speakers are a good set of computer speakers. A sub-woofer sits in the corner for some deep bass. Advents were the creation of Henry Kloss who started Acoustic Research.
My HomePod sits in the kitchen bay window for music to dine by!

 

[ElBerserko]

Apple is an international company. Perhaps where you shop they have older inventory and in Europe, South America, Asia, whatnot, they got the new stuff. Electronics don't have a sell-by date. Perhaps the person in the forecasting division who bought too much got terminated. It's not an indication that HomePod failed.

As I stated, I bought from the Apple Online Store. I am in the United States. It should be their largest market and constantly moving inventory. Clearly they weren't. Electronics should have a sell-by date. Capacitors can go bad when sitting for too long in less than ideal conditions.

It's your wi-fi.

Nope, it died. Don't see how my wifi makes it so it flashes the volume indicators, stops responding to Siri and touch, and cannot be forcefully reset. I followed all these steps here https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208244 to reset to factory settings and at the spinning red light Siri never says anything and after a few seconds just starts flashing the volume indicators again.

 

[Itinj24]

This is no different than 3D TV or Curved TV which got incremental nuance features year over year and did very little to move the needle. Big picture, Apple isn't in the IoT business and they're not in the Search business, so HomePod shouldn't be held accountable for perceptions about the HomePod as an IoT device (Alexa) or a Search device (Google).



That is not true. I just don't like the fact that IoT is used as a weapon against HomePod and portrayed as some "major Apple failure" when AirPods have the exact same IoT functionality and its never mentioned. And that's by the mainstream media as well as forum posters.

HomePod is a magnificent audiophile-caliber streaming speaker for Apple Music subscribers. Period. What smarthome people do with it is immaterial, they can do the same thing with their iPhones, AirPods, or Macbooks, no reason for HomePod to be singled out as the "ah ha!" failure when all these Apple products are encumbered by the same damn HomeKit functionality.

Difference is, that you seem to be forgetting, is that the HomePod was advertised as a music AND a HomeKit smart speaker at the keynote. People were expecting a superb experience with it and their HomeKit devices. It’s even in the title HOMEPod. (HOME being for the home control and POD being for the music). Siri has been bashed for many years across all devices but none were advertised along with the smart home the way the HomePod was.

That said, I rarely have issues with controlling my smart home with the HomePod. Siri is usually good at answering any queries I have too. And it’s absolutely great that when I’m walking into my house from the garage and my hands are full with grocery bags and all I have to say is, “Hey, Siri, close garage door one” to the HomePod sitting on my garage wall.

 

[za9ra22]

Yes, but that's what "My Favorites Mix" is for. If you listen to a lot of jazz and reggae, it will play a lot of jazz and reggae.

But the fun really starts here: You can create your own mashup playlist in about 5 minutes if you, say, go to the Essentials playlist for each of the Top 20 jazz artists and each of the Top 20 reggae artists, drag those 800 songs in together, call it "My Jazzy Reggae Station", and ask Siri to play it. That would give you a collection of the best reggae and jazz songs, 70 hours worth, and if you listen for 5 hours a day that's 2 weeks without hearing the same song twice. If it isn't diverse enough, go to the next 20 artists for jazz and reggae and drag those in too.

And Smart Playlists can do a lot of this automatically, just create a Smart Playlists with Genre = Reggae and Genre = Jazz and put in the parameters like star ratings, plays, top artists, most popular, year(s), etc.

Point is, you can create a very robust mashup channel in minutes in Apple Music and call it a "station" and call it up on HomePod, Apple TV, CarPlay, Mac, iPhone, etc. And unlike TuneIn which doesn't know you or what you like, Apple Music will only get better over time and serve you up even their own curated stations in a way that you will never hear a dud song, ever.



You are paying $10 USD a month now for your wife. It goes up to $15 USD a month for up to 5 more family members. You don't need to juggle payment settings, just pay the additional $5 for up to 5 more of you.

Oh really, I don't think I need you to guide me in the use of a technology product, but thanks anyway. To be clear, it just doesn't do what I want.

And payment issues are not a matter of the $5 extra a month, it's managing payment of purchases, and the ability of the customer to control and manage where that money comes from, rather than Apple as the seller to dictate it.

Overall though, if you don't appreciate the nature and value of the experience I am looking for, you really are not in a position to tell me how to achieve it.

It boils down to something you seem reluctant to accept as a reality for anyone other than perhaps yourself: The HomePod, and Apple's venture into this market, is simply not good enough for many - and their withdrawal of the product demonstrates that they know it, even if you are reluctant to accept the fact.

 

[MrTSolar]

Regarding Siri on HomePod, it has no issue controlling HomeKit gear, but has trouble fetching my playlists (maybe because it hasn’t fully learned my voice for personalized requests). That said, I knew going in what Siri can and can’t do. If it doesn’t work by voice, then I drive it with my phone instead, no big deal.

That said, I wouldn’t have any “Smart home” equipment if it wasn’t HomeKit or something homebrew (Raspberry Pi with relay boards). I will not have any Google or Amazon products in my house except for the Nest I’ve had for a decade. Once I find a suitable replacement, even that will be replaced by something HomeKit. If Apple goes full 180 and removes HomeKit support from their products, then everything gets replaced by an offline solution like Lutron Grafik Eye.

Since I can’t find a HomePod mini on display to compare sound quality, I went ahead and snagged a pair of HomePods (a stereo pair is definitely more than the sum of the individual Pods). I may try buying a mini, but I’m curious to wait until Apple’s next event.

Now, I bought the HomePod because while I have a high quality amp with floor-standing speakers, Bluetooth just doesn’t let me play music on more than one device (have radios on all levels of the house). Even using something AirPlay enabled (which two setups are with Apple TV’s), nothing has the tight control the HomePods do (automatically wake, sync, have remote volume control, and go back to sleep). My dilemma actually has been whether or not to replace my speakers with HomePods (two Pods cost about the same as my Polk speakers and tube amp that play audio from my MacBook).

 

[boltjames]

Oh really, I don't think I need you to guide me in the use of a technology product, but thanks anyway. To be clear, it just doesn't do what I want.

And payment issues are not a matter of the $5 extra a month, it's managing payment of purchases, and the ability of the customer to control and manage where that money comes from, rather than Apple as the seller to dictate it.

Overall though, if you don't appreciate the nature and value of the experience I am looking for, you really are not in a position to tell me how to achieve it.

It boils down to something you seem reluctant to accept as a reality for anyone other than perhaps yourself: The HomePod, and Apple's venture into this market, is simply not good enough for many - and their withdrawal of the product demonstrates that they know it, even if you are reluctant to accept the fact.

Note to self: That’s what you get for trying to help someone.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I understand that these are selling and people are buying them. But it's already a mature business, it hasn't been The Next Big Thing since 2011. We're 10+ years into smarthome and IoT and once you have a new doorbell you don't need another doorbell. Different than iPhone that can change markedly over the years and generations.



I actually don't think Apple is focusing on the cheap Mini. I think they announced that to get people who were waiting them out to jump in instead of prematurely waiting on HomePod Pro. Again, I believe that HomePod was hurting sales of Mini because in their stores the A/B comparisons would have been brutal. Short-term, with supply chain issues and a brand new Mini to ride, Apple is pushing people to the Mini. When the Mini has saturated its market and sales start to plateau, they'll launch HomePod II or Max or Pro or whatever they'll call it.



Apple is all about catering to the niches! OSX has 7% market share, every Macbook is a niche product, even iPhone is now approaching niche-like with the explosion of Android and Apple's own slow progress. AirPods Max is a $549 over ear headphone, caters to the near-audiophile crowd, the very definition of niche. A $300 HomePod Max in 2023 makes perfect sense. Sound quality focus. Especially now that Mini is there to be the smarthome companion.

Thing is, it makes perfect sense for the company with a tiny share of the computer space and a tiny share of the headphone space to support the tiny share of the speaker space. It's what Apple does. And let us not forget- with 15 million units sold and $4.5 billion dollars in revenue, the OG HomePod was anything but a failure.

Smart home products like cameras and doorbells are also replaced regularly too as support ceases. Everything is consumable. You’re right Apple does have a tiny share in the grand scheme so all the more reason to get as many of their customers to buy the best products. If they are pushing this small market towards the Mini and planning to release a better and more expensive variant later, why haven’t many bought the original HomePod? It’s because those wanting a really good sounding smart assistant are a niche market. Apple are struggling to get iPhone users to buy HomePods when people can buy an Echo for £80-100.

They also spent years not allowing anything other than Apple Music to be streamed through it which was a massive mistake. This forced many Apple users to invest in other systems.

 

[boltjames]

Difference is, that you seem to be forgetting, is that the HomePod was advertised as a music AND a HomeKit smart speaker at the keynote.

Apple positioned the original iPod as an accessory that would help sell iMacs, especially to Windows users, and we saw how that turned out. Apple has been wrong before at keynotes. The mistake Apple made, if you want to call it that, was aligning the speaker with the likes of Alexa and Google when that's not what its strength is. They should have positioned it like the Airpods Pro and Airpods Max, just the merits of the fantastic sound quality, especially since HomePod sounds better as a speaker than the Airpods Pro and Max sound as a headphone.

That said, I rarely have issues with controlling my smart home with the HomePod. Siri is usually good at answering any queries I have too. And it’s absolutely great that when I’m walking into my house from the garage and my hands are full with grocery bags and all I have to say is, “Hey, Siri, close garage door one” to the HomePod sitting on my garage wall.

Yup, same here. I have no issues with Siri misunderstanding me or having to repeat myself. One of the unsung features of HomePod is the array of 6 microphones that do an incredible job of hearing mumbles and whispers, I've been in the middle of my swimming pool with people shouting and kids playing and the filter on and can say in only a slightly raised voice "Hey Siri, play Partridge Family Essentials" and on it comes.

 

[boltjames]

Smart home products like cameras and doorbells are also replaced regularly too as support ceases. Everything is consumable. You’re right Apple does have a tiny share in the grand scheme so all the more reason to get as many of their customers to buy the best products. If they are pushing this small market towards the Mini and planning to release a better and more expensive variant later, why haven’t many bought the original HomePod? It’s because those wanting a really good sounding smart assistant are a niche market. Apple are struggling to get iPhone users to buy HomePods when people can buy an Echo for £80-100.

Good post, and an example of what Apple was trying to do which is to not be in the $35 game, a $350 speaker wasn't intended to be a smarthome manager but rather a great sounding speaker for Apple Music audiophiles. The IoT stuff was a nice-to-have, not the primary reason anyone would purchase a HomePod. One could have 10 Googles or Alexas for that price. Had Apple just left the HomeKit out of it, HomePod would have been lauded as a fantastic sounding speaker, best in class for the plug-and-play streamer. It's not the end of the world, though. It sold very well.

They also spent years not allowing anything other than Apple Music to be streamed through it which was a massive mistake. This forced many Apple users to invest in other systems.

Well, we know Apple, and their motivation worked on me. I went from someone who would listen to the free tier of Pandora a few times a year and live with the ads to someone with a family subscription to Apple Music and streaming every single day simply because I thought the HomePod sounded so great and was so convenient. Inadvertently got me to use CarPlay exclusively when I drive, as well.

Remember, the average person was spending $10 a year on iTunes downloads back in the day, now we're spending $120 to $180 a year for Apple Music streaming. The walled garden of HomePod produced incredible Apple Music revenue. If they sold ~15M HomePods, that's $4.5B in revenue from the hardware and $2.5B in revenue from Apple Music. It's good they didn't allow Spotify to get a piece of the HomePod pie. Apple Music overtook it to become #1 in the US during HomePod's reign.

 

[AEWest]

Good post, and an example of what Apple was trying to do which is to not be in the $35 game, a $350 speaker wasn't intended to be a smarthome manager but rather a great sounding speaker for Apple Music audiophiles. The IoT stuff was a nice-to-have, not the primary reason anyone would purchase a HomePod. One could have 10 Googles or Alexas for that price. Had Apple just left the HomeKit out of it, HomePod would have been lauded as a fantastic sounding speaker, best in class for the plug-and-play streamer. It's not the end of the world, though. It sold very well.



Well, we know Apple, and their motivation worked on me. I went from someone who would listen to the free tier of Pandora a few times a year and live with the ads to someone with a family subscription to Apple Music and streaming every single day simply because I thought the HomePod sounded so great and was so convenient. Inadvertently got me to use CarPlay exclusively when I drive, as well.

Remember, the average person was spending $10 a year on iTunes downloads back in the day, now we're spending $120 to $180 a year for Apple Music streaming. The walled garden of HomePod produced incredible Apple Music revenue. If they sold ~15M HomePods, that's $4.5B in revenue from the hardware and $2.5B in revenue from Apple Music. It's good they didn't allow Spotify to get a piece of the HomePod pie. Apple Music overtook it to become #1 in the US during HomePod's reign.

I don't know where you get your sales info, and say the HomePod sold very well. A company doesn't spend 5 years developing a product only to discontinue after 3 years if has sold very well. That makes no sense.

You can be very enthusiastic about how well it has worked in your situation. But the reality it has performed very poorly in the marketplace, Apple realized this and replaced it with a smaller cheaper version. That is the reality.

I still believe there is a market for a higher quality smart speaker, but it should be a soundbar so that it it can be used when watching TV and movies, as well as listening to music. That would really add value to the product.

As an example, the smaller Sonos Beam is flying off the shelves (currently $389, more than the original Homepod price) and Sonos share prices have been soaring.

 

[za9ra22]

Note to self: That’s what you get for trying to help someone.

No, note to boltjames: Don't let your own enthusiasm dictate the experiences of others.

I've been a Mac user since 1987, when I was using PageMaker to design and layout magazines. I've owned many, many, Apple products and used even more. I bought into the ecosystem before there even was one. I've seen the best of this company and what it does, and also the worst.

I have been as enthusiastic about some of these Apple products and what they can do as you are about the HomePod and how you get value from it, so I don't fail to appreciate the enthusiasm.

But if there was any way to get a HomePod to do what I wanted it to do, I'd be using a HomePod to do it, not an Amazon product. If there is one thing that I have learnt over the years about technology however, it is that it is always better to use the product that does what you need, rather than tailor what you are prepared to accept to the product you might otherwise prefer.

And note to me: Try not to be so rude.

 

[boltjames]

I don't know where you get your sales info, and say the HomePod sold very well. A company doesn't spend 5 years developing a product only to discontinue after 3 years if has sold very well. That makes no sense.

Every consumer electronics company should have the problem of a single sku that produces $4.5 billion dollars in revenue in 36 months. Apple discontinued it because Apple Music achieved its goal of displacing Spotify and the time has now come to add things like Bluetooth and allow third-party streaming platforms to be deeply integrated. HomePod achieved its mission and needs a redesign. Consumers didn't like the $349 price and Apple can remove or resdesign a whole bunch of microphones and speakers and A8 processors to bring the cost down while maintaining that great deep bass we all love.

You can be very enthusiastic about how well it has worked in your situation. But the reality it has performed very poorly in the marketplace, Apple realized this and replaced it with a smaller cheaper version. That is the reality.

No, it hasn't. HomePod as a single sku produced more revenue than the entire Sonos company did from 2018-2020. And if you're going down that road, you can't compare $350 HomePod to $30 Echo Dot or $20 Google Mini. That's ludicrous. HomePod Mini kinda sorta goes after those low end speakers with its $99 retail. No one was buying a $349 mono speaker with a processer powerful enough to drive a Macbook to turn the lights off or find out the population of Zimbabwe.

I still believe there is a market for a higher quality smart speaker, but it should be a soundbar so that it it can be used when watching TV and movies, as well as listening to music. That would really add value to the product.

I agree that Apple would be wise to get a Soundbar + HomePod Mini combo going, but that Soundbar would never be a HomePod Pro replacement. The magic of HomePod is that you can drop one in your master bathroom, kitchen, beach house, no different than a minisystem was back in the 90's. I bought 5 HomePod's. I wouldn't have bought 5 Soundbars.

 

[boltjames]

No, note to boltjames: Don't let your own enthusiasm dictate the experiences of others.

And note to me: Try not to be so rude.

Thanks zara, my intent was to help, not to dictate or condescend. Apologies if you took it that way.

 

[za9ra22]

Thanks zara, my intent was to help, not to dictate or condescend. Apologies if you took it that way.

I think my frustration is that in this instance at least, Apple really don't deserve your enthusiasm for the product. Their general philosophy is to dictate what the market and their users should want and can have, and in the HomePod they got it really quite wrong, thanks to a narrow and limited ecosystem it was at the pointy-end of. In the process, they have essentially wasted some of the most creative and invented acoustic engineering work of the last 50 years.

 

[AEWest]

Every consumer electronics company should have the problem of a single sku that produces $4.5 billion dollars in revenue in 36 months. Apple discontinued it because Apple Music achieved its goal of displacing Spotify and the time has now come to add things like Bluetooth and allow third-party streaming platforms to be deeply integrated. HomePod achieved its mission and needs a redesign. Consumers didn't like the $349 price and Apple can remove or resdesign a whole bunch of microphones and speakers and A8 processors to bring the cost down while maintaining that great deep bass we all love.



No, it hasn't. HomePod as a single sku produced more revenue than the entire Sonos company did from 2018-2020. And if you're going down that road, you can't compare $350 HomePod to $30 Echo Dot or $20 Google Mini. That's ludicrous. HomePod Mini kinda sorta goes after those low end speakers with its $99 retail. No one was buying a $349 mono speaker with a processer powerful enough to drive a Macbook to turn the lights off or find out the population of Zimbabwe.



I agree that Apple would be wise to get a Soundbar + HomePod Mini combo going, but that Soundbar would never be a HomePod Pro replacement. The magic of HomePod is that you can drop one in your master bathroom, kitchen, beach house, no different than a minisystem was back in the 90's. I bought 5 HomePod's. I wouldn't have bought 5 Soundbars.

Again, you are confusing your own use case with that of the market. Homepod failed (it did fail despite having a huge built in Apple user base as an advantage over Sonos) or it would still be in production. Why is that so hard to understand? You don't cancel a successful product without an upgraded version available, which is what Apple has done
When I got interested in Smart speakers, there were only google and Amazon ones available. I didn't want them due to poor sound quality - I want decent quality stereo bookshelf speakers. Sonos then introduced the One that had Alexa. I was considering it but it for a Stereo pair it was $400, a bit more than I wanted to spend.

Then Apple introduced the Homepod for $350. Although great sounding, i wanted a stereo pair, not just one. One the day Homepod was introduced, Sonos came out with a special $350 for a pair of Ones. I jumped at it and been happy about the quality.

However they could not directly pair with my TV so I had a separate Denon soundbar for the TV - the Sonos soundbars at that time were too expensive.

Well, they introduced the Beam and I immediately bought one. Now I have all three connected. Sounds great for music and TV. The key is having the soundbar as the base for a system in my view.

 

[ElBerserko]

If they sold ~15M HomePods, that's $4.5B in revenue from the hardware and $2.5B in revenue from Apple Music.

Every consumer electronics company should have the problem of a single sku that produces $4.5 billion dollars in revenue in 36 months. Apple discontinued it because Apple Music achieved its goal of displacing Spotify

You keep bringing these numbers up as it it were fact and not your own number you came up with based on old analyst data on estimated shipments from mid product cycle when there were frequent huge discounts. Not accounting for the slow sales during the first year and ignoring potential impacts of COVID last year. The fact is Apple has never disclosed their sales numbers for HomePod and it is a disservice to anyone who reads this thinking they are real numbers. They are still selling units made during their first (and perhaps only) manufacturing run.

You claim HomePod was hugely successful and profitable yet at the same time Apple's only purpose for it was to displace Spotify so it totally makes sense to discontinue it? If it was profitable, there would be no reason not to keep it as a product.

It wasn't selling so they first lowered the price, then they allowed retailers to put heavy discounts on them. Apple was hitting against their profit margins possibly even losing money per unit and still not moving enough inventory to warrant ordering another production run. So it was discontinued.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Good post, and an example of what Apple was trying to do which is to not be in the $35 game, a $350 speaker wasn't intended to be a smarthome manager but rather a great sounding speaker for Apple Music audiophiles. The IoT stuff was a nice-to-have, not the primary reason anyone would purchase a HomePod. One could have 10 Googles or Alexas for that price. Had Apple just left the HomeKit out of it, HomePod would have been lauded as a fantastic sounding speaker, best in class for the plug-and-play streamer. It's not the end of the world, though. It sold very well.

I remember the HomePod being unveiled and it wasn’t aimed specifically at audiophiles. It was aimed at iPhone users in general as an extension of a system they are already invested in and to coincide with Apple Music being promoted. I think they hoped iPhone users would favour the HomePod as a streaming device and smart assistant but the reality was they pitched it against Amazon and Google but 3 times the price. The fact it wasn’t open to multiple music streaming services meant tempting iPhone users already using Amazon music and Spotify limited their audience even further. They arrived to the market late with a device that was heavily limited to Apple only services. Not the best move.

Well, we know Apple, and their motivation worked on me. I went from someone who would listen to the free tier of Pandora a few times a year and live with the ads to someone with a family subscription to Apple Music and streaming every single day simply because I thought the HomePod sounded so great and was so convenient. Inadvertently got me to use CarPlay exclusively when I drive, as well.

Remember, the average person was spending $10 a year on iTunes downloads back in the day, now we're spending $120 to $180 a year for Apple Music streaming. The walled garden of HomePod produced incredible Apple Music revenue. If they sold ~15M HomePods, that's $4.5B in revenue from the hardware and $2.5B in revenue from Apple Music. It's good they didn't allow Spotify to get a piece of the HomePod pie. Apple Music overtook it to become #1 in the US during HomePod's reign.

If revenue was the metric Apple were using rather than adoption rate amongst Apple users, they wouldn’t have pulled it from the market without a suitable replacement. Apple make enough money as a whole but also judge themselves against their competitors. Whether it works for some people like yourself it irrelevant really as Apple have decided to focus on the Mini which still offers the experience but at a much cheaper rate.

 

[boltjames]

I think my frustration is that in this instance at least, Apple really don't deserve your enthusiasm for the product. Their general philosophy is to dictate what the market and their users should want and can have, and in the HomePod they got it really quite wrong, thanks to a narrow and limited ecosystem it was at the pointy-end of. In the process, they have essentially wasted some of the most creative and invented acoustic engineering work of the last 50 years.

Not sure why HomePod gets put in your doghouse when its behaving just like any classic Apple product with its walled garden approach. Macs can't run Windows elegantly, Apple TV isn't available as a native app on my Sony TV, iPhone can't run Android apps, HomePod is just more of same. In reading your posts, it seems you don't like The Man telling you what you can and can't listen to or how you can or can't make payments. Apple doesn't seem like a good fit.

As for me, the HomePod is my personal liberator, it finally got me away from physical media including my MP3 collection. I've uploaded all my boots, imports, rarities, obscure pressings up to Apple Music, use my voice to tell Siri what to play, and I don't need any big ol' stereo systems in my life anymore. Apple Music in the home, Apple Music in the car, Apple Music as I travel, it's fantastic. I'm discovering more new music and listening to more old music this way. HomePod + Apple Music has been the best thing to happen to me from a musical standpoint since I bought my first CD player back in 1984.

 

[boltjames]

Again, you are confusing your own use case with that of the market. Homepod failed (it did fail despite having a huge built in Apple user base as an advantage over Sonos) or it would still be in production. Why is that so hard to understand? You don't cancel a successful product without an upgraded version available, which is what Apple has done

Apple is transitioning to a new HomePod Pro in 2022 or 2023. Due to supply chain issues putting pressure on factories and component producers, its going to wait a year or two. Apple has a ton of M1 Macbooks to ship, they have a ton of AirPod headphones and earbuds to ship. And, the big one, HomePod Mini just launched and HomePod can make the HomePod Mini sound like crap in a head-to-head in store comparison. It's not a failure. It's old and needs replacing both in tech and cost correction. Apple has bigger priorities. And audiophile-types can be satisfied with AirPods Pro and AirPods Max while they wait for the next gen HomePod.

The key is having the soundbar as the base for a system in my view.

The beauty of HomePod is that it's not tethered to anything. It's a standalone self-contained audiophile-caliber home stereo replacement. It's what the Bose Wave Radio used to be or that JVC Executive Mini System used to be. It's not about the Big Huge Living Room Home Theater at all. It's about all the other rooms.

 

[AEWest]

Not sure why HomePod gets put in your doghouse when its behaving just like any classic Apple product with its walled garden approach. Macs can't run Windows elegantly, Apple TV isn't available as a native app on my Sony TV, iPhone can't run Android apps, HomePod is just more of same. In reading your posts, it seems you don't like The Man telling you what you can and can't listen to or how you can or can't make payments. Apple doesn't seem like a good fit.

As for me, the HomePod is my personal liberator, it finally got me away from physical media including my MP3 collection. I've uploaded all my boots, imports, rarities, obscure pressings up to Apple Music, use my voice to tell Siri what to play, and I don't need any big ol' stereo systems in my life anymore. Apple Music in the home, Apple Music in the car, Apple Music as I travel, it's fantastic. I'm discovering more new music and listening to more old music this way. HomePod + Apple Music has been the best thing to happen to me from a musical standpoint since I bought my first CD player back in 1984.

I agree with streaming music being so liberating - I listen to so much more music than I used to. But I do this with Sonos/Spotify.

 

[boltjames]

You keep bringing these numbers up as it it were fact and not your own number you came up with based on old analyst data on estimated shipments from mid product cycle when there were frequent huge discounts. Not accounting for the slow sales during the first year and ignoring potential impacts of COVID last year. The fact is Apple has never disclosed their sales numbers for HomePod and it is a disservice to anyone who reads this thinking they are real numbers. They are still selling units made during their first (and perhaps only) manufacturing run.

Use Google. I did. There are several datapoints that are just as valid as the ones used to speculate on the sales of all other Apple products. Could be 10M, could be 20M, 15M sounds fair. As for the silly date code, so what? So some pencil pusher in the procurement division ordered too many, who cares? HomePod isn't an iPhone, its not a category of product that changes year over year.

You claim HomePod was hugely successful and profitable yet at the same time Apple's only purpose for it was to displace Spotify so it totally makes sense to discontinue it? If it was profitable, there would be no reason not to keep it as a product.

I didn't say it was the only purpose, but once Apple Music eclipsed Spotify and we're in a global pandemic that's crushing supply chains, it feels like the right time to transition to a next gen version.

And if HomePod was such a bust, why would Apple create the HomePod Mini? At $99 that product is hardly competitive either, Apple has nothing to compete with $30 Amazon and Google offerings.

It wasn't selling so they first lowered the price, then they allowed retailers to put heavy discounts on them. Apple was hitting against their profit margins possibly even losing money per unit and still not moving enough inventory to warrant ordering another production run. So it was discontinued.

Yes, on this we agree. Apple overbuilt the product compared to what was needed to achieve critical mass. What Apple proved was that they could compete in the premium streaming speaker space at a $249 or $199 pricepoint. So now they will create a HomePod 2 that will maintain the sound quality, add connectivity, add compatibility, and lose some of the tweaky features that made it too expensive. This isn't rocket science. Apple can ignite a $2B annual business in a year or two when HomePod Mini starts to plateau and the pandemic's impact on the supply chain is over. Apple Music is one of the most profitable businesses Apple has; HomePod is a fantastic way to listen to it.

 

[boltjames]

I remember the HomePod being unveiled and it wasn’t aimed specifically at audiophiles. It was aimed at iPhone users in general as an extension of a system they are already invested in and to coincide with Apple Music being promoted. I think they hoped iPhone users would favour the HomePod as a streaming device and smart assistant but the reality was they pitched it against Amazon and Google but 3 times the price.

Agreed. HomePod definitely was built like one thing and marketed like another thing. They should have pitched it as the next generation of self-contained single-room audio, the Bose Wave Radio for the streaming era. Siri will always lag Google because Apple isn't a search company, and HomeKit will always lag Alexa because Apple isn't an IoT company. Apple is a kick-ass audio company and they should have marketed HomePod straight in that direction. In the end, the right audience owns them as it's not a great personal assistant. Apple proved there is a premium streaming audio market at $249 or $199. Now they just have to rebulid HomePod to make it profitable.

They arrived to the market late with a device that was heavily limited to Apple only services. Not the best move.

That strategy worked brilliantly in mobile phones. It's hit or miss, but no one at Apple thought a $349 walled garden mono speaker was going to be some massive success, the next iPod, the next iPhone. It's a niche product at a premium price just like AirPods Max, Apple TV, iMac, and all the other "failures" that aren't failures by Apple's criteria. Apple sells electronics to rich people. Not so much in mobile phones, but everywhere else.

If revenue was the metric Apple were using rather than adoption rate amongst Apple users, they wouldn’t have pulled it from the market without a suitable replacement. Apple make enough money as a whole but also judge themselves against their competitors. Whether it works for some people like yourself it irrelevant really as Apple have decided to focus on the Mini which still offers the experience but at a much cheaper rate.

It has long been rumored that Apple Music will launch a premium lossless tier. I could see HomePod HD coming out to support that in a year or two, Apple having the Mini to market as the "personal assistant" and HomePod HD being marketed as the "audiophile speaker". No way Apple abandons the HomePod long term. Apple Music is a massive profit driver and HomePod one of its most important accessories.