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HomePod is Ninth Most Popular Smart Speaker in United States According to Recent Survey
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That's what I said. "Google/Amazon considers their users more valuable than selling hardware."
I didn’t say that, I said they consider their data of importance. Apple considers their users as customers.
There is a crazy war going on in the home assistant/smart speaker arena right now, especially between Google and Amazon for the lower entry-level device market.
Google comes out with the Google Home Hub ($150) to counter Amazon's Echo Spot ($130) and Echo Show ($230), and now Amazon counter-strikes by bundling an 8" HD Amazon Fire Tablet with a wireless charging stand for $110.
This is going to bear watching, because while Apple's focus, brand, long-range planning, and attention to detail give them an advantage over Google, Amazon has shown that they can be just as intense as Apple.
Google comes out with the Google Home Hub ($150) to counter Amazon's Echo Spot ($130) and Echo Show ($230), and now Amazon counter-strikes by bundling an 8" HD Amazon Fire Tablet with a wireless charging stand for $110.
This is going to bear watching, because while Apple's focus, brand, long-range planning, and attention to detail give them an advantage over Google, Amazon has shown that they can be just as intense as Apple.
HomePod wont sell because it doesn’t do x, y,z yada yada. Where have I heard this before? “The iPad is just a giant iPod touch who would ever buy that?” “The MacBook Air will never sell because people need optical drives” “The Apple Watch will never sell because you have to charge it every night” “the iPhone X will never sell because of the notch” “Apple will never sell any more Macbook Pros because they eliminated such and such port”. It never ends and the haters never learn. HomePod will be a MAJOR player this Christmas.
In the same way that anything can be removed if you apply enough force.
Proprietary connector and replacement cables not available for purchase.
Homepods as premium speakers are good but too late to market. Most people who care to spend so much money on speakers already own home theatre systems (like me). And they are not like Phones where u r tempted to upgrade every year or 2. they sit there and just work which is what all i care about.
The HomePod doesn't compete with home theatre systems or other speakers. They are competing with you not needing speakers at all. They are two completely different markets.
I had an old stereo system that I had not used for years. Once I got my HomePods I gave it away and gave all my physical cds away to charity. I had them all imported to iTunes.
This echos how I feel after having mines for months. The ease of use and just walking through the house issuing commands that originally I was having to find my iPhone or do it from my Watch, is what keeps me locked in. The only two things I can find wrong is lack of control over Personal Requests. Everyone in my house has an iPhone or iPad, so naturally I want them to use it but I don't want everyone to be able to use Reminders/Calendars, etc. The other problem ties into that, my younger kids have a field day suddenly telling Siri to turn on some kiddie music and it's maddening to suddenly hear it, I want to be able to lock them to certain features based off their voice patterns.
I'll just add to this that it's slightly annoying that everyone who is part of my "Home" has "Hey Siri" requests intercepted by the HomePod even though a) she can't handle personal requests from other Apple IDs, and b) she can't do that on HomePod (which affects me as well).
Otherwise, the experience is great. Requesting music from HomePod, streaming music to it from iTunes on my Mac, telling Siri to add garlic to my shared grocery list from the kitchen, etc.. are all little luxuries that are appreciated.