Alexa? the half-a-brain bot by Amazon who's only designed to sell you things and secretly record every word you utter to convert into marketing data? No way, don't be a fool. Siri is secure, helpful and your digital companion. Alexa, Google Home, they are your enemy using informatics against you.
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HomePod Holds Estimated 70% Share of Growing $200+ Smart Speaker Market
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Alexa? the half-a-brain bot by Amazon who's only designed to sell you things and secretly record every word you utter to convert into marketing data? No way, don't be a fool. Siri is secure, helpful and your digital companion. Alexa, Google Home, they are your enemy using informatics against you.
I'm still in LOVE with my Sonos!
That's because you haven't tried the HomePod. It kills all the other speakers period
I'll bet my 2 Sonos paired as Stereo beat your 1 HomePod and let's not even talk about the price comparison of such.
The HomePod actually caused me to invest in my first few Sonos speakers. I had largely ignored the entire wirelessly connected home audio market until Apple mentioned it. A good friend has a HomePod, and we've done side by side A:B testing. The HomePod is excellent. But for roughly the same price as a stereo pair of Sonos One's, it's not even close. Stereo separation just can't be faked. The longer I use my Sonos the more I keep buying additional units for around my house.
Apple also owns 100% of the Siri-enabled "smart" speaker market. LoL.
"Apple HomePod captures 100% of the Apple HomePod market according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo"
This is a great example of shaping a statistic to suit your needs. The $200+ category doesn't exactly have dozens of models on offer, and as a whole doesn't make up anywhere near a majority of the total smart speaker market.
I don’t care what the stats say, the HomePod sounds damn good. Got one for our family room - and the family loves it. I liked it so much, I bought another one for the upstairs game room.
Of course I didn’t have any sunk costs in a Sono system or with Google or Amazon. This was my first foray into the smart speakers...
Of course I didn’t have any sunk costs in a Sono system or with Google or Amazon. This was my first foray into the smart speakers...
You nailed it, it’s the combination of both. Hardware already is superior (especially when pairing them). Siri will get there. And it perfectly integrates into my Apple ecosystem.
Nobody should be surprised. Apple has never competed at the low end of any market.
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I've controlled HomeKit extensively on our HomePod. It works pretty well. We've used it as a cooking timer in the kitchen (it's within earshot and I'm looking forward to the multiple timer addition) - it's very, very convenient to set timers hands-free while cooking.
One thing that's annoyed me thus far is the need to perform single HomeKit actions in one command. Teaching Siri what "and" means (as in "Hey Siri, turn out the lights and lock the door" would improve HomeKit Siri support a thousand-fold. Yes, you can make scenes, but that's more trouble than it ought to be.
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I've controlled HomeKit extensively on our HomePod. It works pretty well. We've used it as a cooking timer in the kitchen (it's within earshot and I'm looking forward to the multiple timer addition) - it's very, very convenient to set timers hands-free while cooking.
One thing that's annoyed me thus far is the need to perform single HomeKit actions in one command. Teaching Siri what "and" means (as in "Hey Siri, turn out the lights and lock the door" would improve HomeKit Siri support a thousand-fold. Yes, you can make scenes, but that's more trouble than it ought to be.
It's always hard to get into what sounds "better" as that's very personal. What sounds great to me may not to you and vice versa.
With that said, I do own both Sonos and HomePod and, for me, the primary proof point is that my HomePod doesn't see much use whereas my Sonos system does. My personal view is that the audio quality on my HomePod isn't up to the standard of say my Play:5 units, but then again they are another $150 or so.
One thing I will say about Sonos which doesn't get nearly enough attention - they stand behind and support their products to a degree you don't often see. My first Sonos products arrived in 2005, a couple of ZP100 units, and both are still in use today and are still receiving software/firmware updates from Sonos. I've added a fair few other Sonos components over the years, and the original units still seamlessly work with the new. Those original players were discontinued years ago, but Sonos still supports them. That deserves a shout out IMO.
With that said, I do own both Sonos and HomePod and, for me, the primary proof point is that my HomePod doesn't see much use whereas my Sonos system does. My personal view is that the audio quality on my HomePod isn't up to the standard of say my Play:5 units, but then again they are another $150 or so.
One thing I will say about Sonos which doesn't get nearly enough attention - they stand behind and support their products to a degree you don't often see. My first Sonos products arrived in 2005, a couple of ZP100 units, and both are still in use today and are still receiving software/firmware updates from Sonos. I've added a fair few other Sonos components over the years, and the original units still seamlessly work with the new. Those original players were discontinued years ago, but Sonos still supports them. That deserves a shout out IMO.
Ah I see, your just trolling, I’ll leave you to it then. Have fun. Hope you don’t use social media....
Sonos are great, I had 2 Play One's and they were really good. I actually bought into the Sonos dream when they first appeared in the UK, seems like a lifetime ago now.
I decided to buy a HomePod because I was curious and after hearing it at home I immediately went out and bought another one (I know, more money than sense!) and when you hear 2 it really is amazing to get such great sound from something so small.
I sold my Play One's and now just have my 2 HomePods. Having said that I still really like Sonos speakers and I'm not that bothered by the smart features so the HomePod suits me, they turn my lights on and off which is mainly all I use the smart bit for.
I can't comment as I haven't tried it however, I bet 2 HomePod's beat the crap out your 2 Sonos speakers.
I'm sure Apple will figure out how to make a huge profit on HomePod and ours has really nice sound too.
But what's mindblowing to me is how little it does! I'm still waiting for it to answer a simple "Hey Siri" question and it fails on these nine times out of ten. It's not very smart. The whole Apple lovin' family finds Siri pretty dumb and annoying most of the time. We're still holding out for that magic update that's going to make the HomePod a helpful, usable part of our kitchen and living room. Other than asking it to turn on a talk radio station when we leave the house, it does little more and we've gotten tired enough of the repeated failures that we don't interact with it much anymore.
I don't want it reading my personal texts and email to the whole family (a very dumb idea for a device that cries out to be shared), it often can't really play a decent set list from our $15/month Apple music subscription and as much as all of us are Apple fans, we find this a mostly useless addition to our network.
If we've been watching a TV program and want to ask a question about it, she often replies something along the lines of that info not being in her database.
Oh, and if your significant other is "Sweetie," don't yell "Hey, sweetie do you know where my keys are?" because guess who answers?
I see all kinds of potential here but most of what we'd like it to do it still cannot. It's been out well over half a year now and still sits there, dumbly silent most of the time. I can see why so many early adopters returned theirs. We've considered it and just keep hanging on hoping they'll launch a massive update that will make it all worthwhile.
Yes, the speaker sounds lovely, but Siri is just lame.
But what's mindblowing to me is how little it does! I'm still waiting for it to answer a simple "Hey Siri" question and it fails on these nine times out of ten. It's not very smart. The whole Apple lovin' family finds Siri pretty dumb and annoying most of the time. We're still holding out for that magic update that's going to make the HomePod a helpful, usable part of our kitchen and living room. Other than asking it to turn on a talk radio station when we leave the house, it does little more and we've gotten tired enough of the repeated failures that we don't interact with it much anymore.
I don't want it reading my personal texts and email to the whole family (a very dumb idea for a device that cries out to be shared), it often can't really play a decent set list from our $15/month Apple music subscription and as much as all of us are Apple fans, we find this a mostly useless addition to our network.
If we've been watching a TV program and want to ask a question about it, she often replies something along the lines of that info not being in her database.
Oh, and if your significant other is "Sweetie," don't yell "Hey, sweetie do you know where my keys are?" because guess who answers?
I see all kinds of potential here but most of what we'd like it to do it still cannot. It's been out well over half a year now and still sits there, dumbly silent most of the time. I can see why so many early adopters returned theirs. We've considered it and just keep hanging on hoping they'll launch a massive update that will make it all worthwhile.
Yes, the speaker sounds lovely, but Siri is just lame.
I’d like to see that comparison, and hear it. But to make it fair it would have to be one of the Alexa enables Sonos One’s.
Hmm may have to go and search You Tube...
This 100%. The Homepod is still not available for purchase here in SG so I can't directly compare, but I've tried other large speakers that throw/bounce sound to try and mimic stereo, and there's just no comparison. Whatever your budget, 2 good speakers > 1 maybe slightly better than good speaker.
I would hope the $700 setup would beat the $400 one.
The fact that these two speakers are even compared says a lot about Sonos.
I think voice-assistant speakers and smart speakers should be distinguished. There is a pretty good contingent of people that have whole-home smart speaker setups that don't have a voice assistant.
Also, for me personally, having a voice-assistant in my speaker is undesirable. I feel like every company is slapping in a voice-assistant (mostly Alexa) into a speaker these days without actually considering whether this feature is wanted my consumers. Reminds me of 3D TVs - for a while you it was difficult to find a TV set that wasn't 3D-capable, yet very few people ever actually used the 3D functionality. I think smart speakers are similar - most folks the voice control only to play or pause music, and still reach for the physical play/pause button pretty often. The rest of the voice-assistant features go unused. Even the most obvious use - checking the weather - is easier on a smartphone. I'm sure tech forum dwellers will disagree, but this is what I see with my non-techie family members and friends.
Also, for me personally, having a voice-assistant in my speaker is undesirable. I feel like every company is slapping in a voice-assistant (mostly Alexa) into a speaker these days without actually considering whether this feature is wanted my consumers. Reminds me of 3D TVs - for a while you it was difficult to find a TV set that wasn't 3D-capable, yet very few people ever actually used the 3D functionality. I think smart speakers are similar - most folks the voice control only to play or pause music, and still reach for the physical play/pause button pretty often. The rest of the voice-assistant features go unused. Even the most obvious use - checking the weather - is easier on a smartphone. I'm sure tech forum dwellers will disagree, but this is what I see with my non-techie family members and friends.
At what price if even true?
Here: I'' do the math for you.
2 Sonos Play 1's plus a Dot = $350
2 Homepods = $700
You need to do some research on the internets, and see how most reviewers say there is very little difference in the sound of the two.
Thanks, but I'll keep my awesome Sonos that work with not one, but any music service I want!
And my bank account will love me for it!
Oh they will. Just like the first 2 iPhones were only those two iPhones. Then the iPhone 3GS, and suddenly you had a choice between "iPhone 3GS and the now-a-bit-reduced-but-still-very-useful iPhone 3G". Same for the iPod at its time. They'll plant here, then (funny enough) "trickle down". They'll ooze their way into the lower portions of the higher end and lay waste to the profits.
Did you see the ridiculous article about "Get an Amazon Fire for $39 today!" ? Ugh... no money to be had in that. That's just Amazon trying to capture any sales before the next iPad comes out in October. Same will be happening in the speaker market.
Apple knows they have (a LOT of) work to do, tho. We all know it. First 2 iPhones didn't record video; not until the iPhone 3GS. But at the time, other vendor phones were doing video (IIRC, the Windows stuff from Sony Ericsson did; yeah, big flashback!). Same equivalence for the HomePod. We already saw it with AirPlay 2 and stereo support. They're figuring it out; albeit slowly, perhaps too slowly. Same for the first iPhone at a wallet-damaging $599 until they dropped the price and later did revenue-sharing with AT&T, or the first iPad at $499. They may be slow, but they'll get it (cf. Verizon iPhone 4 and later the right-sized iPhone 5).
In three years, we all will be having a very different conversation. (granted, I do hope Apple figures it out by then and really gets their **** together; they indeed are way behind. "Go team, go!" haha)
till the $1000+ slice becomes the fully ignorable piece of the whole SmartPhone market, i.e. less than 0.1%. And, that day will come very very soon, before any analyzer that FOCUS ONLY ON financial effects could wake up to it.
Apple cannot compete with the low-end. Their business model doesn't allow it. Amazon can sell a $39 Echo because the Echo isn't where the profits come from. It is from whatever DATA they can GLEAN from YOU. Same with Google. This necessitates Homepod's higher price and focus on audio quality.
That said, I have no idea if this will pay off for Apple. Tough market to enter into.
That said, I have no idea if this will pay off for Apple. Tough market to enter into.