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HomePod Launching in China and Hong Kong on January 18

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Apple today announced that its HomePod speaker launches in China and Hong Kong on Friday, January 18. It will be available for 2,799 yuan in China and HK$2,799 in Hong Kong from Apple.com, Apple Stores, and authorized resellers.

homepod-pair.jpg

Apple had previously announced that the HomePod would launch in China and Hong Kong in early 2019 and now we know it will be later this week. Siri on the HomePod gained support for Cantonese and Mandarin in China and a Cantonese dialect in Hong Kong in a software update last month.

Apple's press release highlights how the HomePod can stream Apple Music genres such as Mandopop and Cantopop and other audio content from any AirPlay-supported apps, including QQ Music, DeDao, iHuman Story, Dragonfly FM, and Penguin FM in China, and Spotify, KKBOX, JOOX, and Podcast in Hong Kong.

Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller:
We're excited to bring HomePod to our customers in mainland China and Hong Kong markets. We can't wait for them to experience how great it sounds in their home, we think they are going to love it.
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HomePod first launched in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia in February 2018, followed by Canada, France, and Germany in June 2018. And in October 2018, Apple made the speaker available in Spain and Mexico.

Article Link: HomePod Launching in China and Hong Kong on January 18
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/01/13/homepod-launches-china-january-18/
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Reactions: Vanilla35
BruceEBonus said:
They’ll be stunned at just how far Apple has come .... “That’s .....IT? A Bluetooth Speaker?” Ah yes. But a Bluetooth Speaker with an Apple logo AND double the price. Hello? Hello? Where they gone? :eek:
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Bluetooth? It doesn’t even offer that feature. At the price they ask for it you’d think it would have a Bluetooth input option, but nope... nothing.
 
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Excellent news! The expansion of the HomePod and Apple Music benefits the ecosystem which benefits the ecosystem user base.
 
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goobot said:
The lack of Bluetooth and the fact that China is the type of government that can/would shut down Apple Music on a whim means this thing could become a brick at a moments notice.
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Don't be silly. I'm sure the launch of this product in China automatically requires the government get a backdoor into it. It's exactly the type of always-on surveillance device they would want to force on everyone, if they could without attracting negative international attention.
 
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Reactions: freezah, pratikindia, unplugme71 and 1 other person
At Apple they get excited in every sentence that starts a press release, a keynote, a section of a keynote, whenever a guest at a keynote is presented, whenever numbers are named, ...

it should be the company’s tagline:
“Apple, it’s just exciting!”

It used to be “it just works”, but why make the effort still to hold on to that idea, uh?
 
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ARB4 said:
Nice! Hoping to get my second one soon.
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Me too. I hesitated because of the rumors of a smaller satellite version. That won’t last long, lol.
[doublepost=1547419584][/doublepost]
OlliFlamme said:
At Apple they get excited in every sentence that starts a press release, a keynote, a section of a keynote, whenever a guest at a keynote is presented, whenever numbers are named, ...

it should be the company’s tagline:
“Apple, it’s just exciting!”

It used to be “it just works”, but why make the effort still to hold on to that idea, uh?
Click to expand...
Um, this is about a product expansion, not a keynote.
 
Does Siri on these support a mix of languages? When I use Siri on my iPhone, which has Siri set to norwegian and I tell her to play an american song title, where everything I say is in norwegian but the title, she never gets the song right.

I imagine thats gonna be a problem with these speakers as well
 
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[/doublepost]
Um, this is about a product expansion, not a keynote.[/QUOTE] As I perceive it, Schiller must have expressed himself in a press release that mentions a launch of an existing product in a new existing market. He considers that to be exciting stuff, just as he does express in every keynote.

I’m sorry you weren’t that excited with my statement, not everybody can be excited about such trivial mumbo jumbo ;)
 
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Ballis said:
Does Siri on these support a mix of languages? When I use Siri on my iPhone, which has Siri set to norwegian and I tell her to play an american song title, where everything I say is in norwegian but the title, she never gets the song right.

I imagine thats gonna be a problem with these speakers as well
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Hahaaha... i get you. Try to find American movie titles, songs, etc...
Same same here. What to do?
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Roy said:
About 1/3 of the American citizenry believe they are superior to any person not an American citizen.
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Replace ‘American’ in your statement by any other nationality, and it still works.
It’s part of the human condition, you got to know that.
 
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