The day Apple releases a product with Alexa support is the day we all know that Bezos finally has too much money.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
HomePod Now Sold Out on Apple's US Online Store
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Create a brilliant speaker
- Have marketing fail to define it correctly in the public mind
- Watch as the product is routinely miscategorized as just another "smart assistant speaker" in a way that highlights Siri's weaknesses as a smart assistant while accentuating the price difference and entirely bypassing the main strength, its great sound quality
- Have the public reject it on the basis of that miscategorization
- Wonder what happened
There are plenty of speakers on the market that do all that's listed - bluetooth, aux input, and non-Apple support. There are also some that only work with dedicated audio channels. The target demographic for this product was never the person looking for a cheap bluetooth speaker that could take along with them. Or the person looking for nicer hardwired speakers for their gaming rigs.
The target audience was someone looking for a first-party speaker setup that worked along the lines of the Sonos gear. The fact is came with advanced beam forming, the ability to automatically identify a second device and automatically link and adjust the audio field, and seamless provide support for x.1 audio from an Apple TV places it well into the target market that Apple had in mind.
The comment about "Competition allows this" really does not make sense in context. Unless you are just trying to introduce how Apple is anticompetitive this time because they did not offer a product that competed on the playing field you are interested in.
I have one in my office - on with music much of the day, acts as my speaker on calls, and paired with my Apple TV when I want to watch something. I really wanted to get a second to really exploit the latter use but just kept putting it off. Too late now.
I'm bummed about this. I really love my HomePod, I wanted to get a second to pair with mine, but the price kept me away. I guess that's why it got discontinued in the first place, but it's still just a little sad. The HomePod mini is nice, but for the price, you can have 3 google nests, which aren't nearly as great, but since these speakers have finite lives I think you have to look at value/quality responsibly.
There are many possibilities why it failed, but obviously Apple thinks that the Mini now is the smart speaker that the public will actually want to buy. You can say "oh, yeah, they never intended it to be a cheap bluetooth speaker", but Apple is great at making expensive premium products that the general public will say "that's really expensive, but I have to have it, so I will handily open my wallet". Homepod is not one of those products. I would say that it failed because of the too limited functionality. Since it didn't sell well enough at even $200 discounted pricing. it wasn't the price that was the sole reason it failed to get a lot of traction.
I personally would rather invest in Sonos, they have a more complete solution that fits my needs. In fact, that's exactly what I am doing.
They don't have one, never have.
The Homepod was a continuation of that, it fits in really well with the also idiotically overpriced and relatively useless iPod Hi-Fi.
Actually, Apple's earlier computer speakers were generally decent. The Bose and Harmon Kardon partnerships produced pretty good computer speakers. They were, of course, also overpriced, but not insanely overpriced like the Homepod.
When the soft update will end?
I love to have some connected speakers but like with the old sono who they stop update them and now this one…
I bought 20 years Magnat speakers for my home cinéma with an technics amp, I just added the Bluetooth and all still working perfectly and will work until… but I’m sure of one thing he will never stop because it’s missing an update
I love to have some connected speakers but like with the old sono who they stop update them and now this one…
I bought 20 years Magnat speakers for my home cinéma with an technics amp, I just added the Bluetooth and all still working perfectly and will work until… but I’m sure of one thing he will never stop because it’s missing an update
I know you disagreed with my post earlier, but I don't disagre with what you said here. Do you think $200 is still overpriced? I think for the amount of sound hardware you get the $200 feels right, but the hardware is held back by the wall-garden nature of the device. It should have played a bit better with other services and input devices.
I really like my HomePod. I wish they’d update it with the U1 chip, Matter/Thread, and WiFi 6. The sound quality is fantastic and while Siri isn’t always the smartest I’ve never had it fail in understanding what I’m saying. It’s just a great device for Apple users. The mini is cool but doesn’t really deliver in terms of audio quality.
Well, Apple is partially rectifying that with tvOS 15 et al this fall. You'll be able to use one or two HomePod mini speakers as default audio outputs, just like you can with a full-sized HomePod, which means they'll work with eARC.
You won't get Dolby Atmos, of course. Apple coyly avoided mentioning anything about that, but the HomePod mini simply isn't capable of that level of sound quality. You'll get a decent stereo soundstage, but nothing that will make you want to replace a good sound bar. A pair of full-sized HomePod speakers, on the other hand, were enough to make me rip out my 7.1 receiver and wired surround speakers.
I have a pair of HomePod in my living room and I can’t find a better system. I think it’s a huge mistake on Apple part if it’s not replaced by a better system anytime soon.
The HomePod will become a cult product.
Price was too high at launch, stereo came later, no link with Apple TV until late (so stupid) and badly presented product on the store where you could not hear it properly.
They could have dominated the market but … no …
The HomePod will become a cult product.
Price was too high at launch, stereo came later, no link with Apple TV until late (so stupid) and badly presented product on the store where you could not hear it properly.
They could have dominated the market but … no …
Personally, as somebody who owned not one, but two iPod Hi-Fi speakers, and now has four full-sized HomePods (in two stereo pairs), I think the problem with the HomePod was two-fold...
Firstly, Apple failed to read the room. I think that happened with the iPod Hi-Fi, but it was even more apparent with the HomePod. They created one of the most niche products in the history of Apple. It was the exact antithesis of the strategy that made the iPhone popular, which was to take a category that was populated by demanding power users and make it accessible to the other 95%. With the HomePod, they did the exact opposite: tried to market a speaker to the extremely demanding world of audiophiles, and then narrowed the field even further to only those audiophiles who were already heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem. The HomePod was always an iPhone accessory, first and foremost.
While the second problem was the marketing, of course, that was an uphill battle for Apple from the very start, largely for the first point — it's hard to market a niche speaker beyond that niche. While there are lots of iPhone users out there, the Venn diagram between those who demand premium sound quality and are so steeped in the Apple ecosystem as to never want a speaker that works with a non-Apple device is a very narrow overlap.
However, Apple also suffered from the fact that nobody takes it seriously as a speaker company. The iPod Hi-Fi had the exact same negative inertia to overcome, and that was designed by a senior audio engineer who came over to Apple from Klipsch back in the day.
I think releasing the HomePod they way it did showed a ton of hubris on Apple's part. Apple thought it could compete with Sonos, Bose and JBL, yet the tech press and consumers saw it as competing in the same class as Google, Amazon, and Logitech.
I'm not sure how Apple could have marketed the HomePod differently, but they definitely needed the audio industry to take them more seriously, and that never happened. With the Apple Watch, the Gold Edition was released to curry favour with the fashion industry (I remain convinced that's the only reason Apple ever made the silly thing in the first place), but the high-end audio world is an even tougher nut to crack then simply getting the attention of the image-conscious and fickle fashionistas.
Firstly, Apple failed to read the room. I think that happened with the iPod Hi-Fi, but it was even more apparent with the HomePod. They created one of the most niche products in the history of Apple. It was the exact antithesis of the strategy that made the iPhone popular, which was to take a category that was populated by demanding power users and make it accessible to the other 95%. With the HomePod, they did the exact opposite: tried to market a speaker to the extremely demanding world of audiophiles, and then narrowed the field even further to only those audiophiles who were already heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem. The HomePod was always an iPhone accessory, first and foremost.
While the second problem was the marketing, of course, that was an uphill battle for Apple from the very start, largely for the first point — it's hard to market a niche speaker beyond that niche. While there are lots of iPhone users out there, the Venn diagram between those who demand premium sound quality and are so steeped in the Apple ecosystem as to never want a speaker that works with a non-Apple device is a very narrow overlap.
However, Apple also suffered from the fact that nobody takes it seriously as a speaker company. The iPod Hi-Fi had the exact same negative inertia to overcome, and that was designed by a senior audio engineer who came over to Apple from Klipsch back in the day.
I think releasing the HomePod they way it did showed a ton of hubris on Apple's part. Apple thought it could compete with Sonos, Bose and JBL, yet the tech press and consumers saw it as competing in the same class as Google, Amazon, and Logitech.
I'm not sure how Apple could have marketed the HomePod differently, but they definitely needed the audio industry to take them more seriously, and that never happened. With the Apple Watch, the Gold Edition was released to curry favour with the fashion industry (I remain convinced that's the only reason Apple ever made the silly thing in the first place), but the high-end audio world is an even tougher nut to crack then simply getting the attention of the image-conscious and fickle fashionistas.
Is that copied verbatim from an internal Apple presentation?
The way I see it, it’s basically aimed at existing iphone users who are already subscribed to Apple Music. Aside from being a great speaker, the intent is possibly to keep users entrenched inside the apple ecosystem (you can’t use android or lose access to airplay, switching to Spotify loses siri integration).
I think the issues were high price (especially when you were expected to get two of them for the stereo sound effect), and the very narrow target market. I also don’t understand why siri integration continues to be an issue for countries like Singapore, where we speak predominantly English.
In other words, this Apple product didn't fail, Apple failed this product.
Same. Thanks to adding the second HomePod, I can now actually hear shows on HBOMax w/o having to turn the ATV up to full-volume.
As happy as I am with the sound, and the ATV ... I'm ridiculously annoyed that I can't hook a turntable up to them. I really don't want multiple speakers, but I'm stuck with it.
Works with the Apple TV for video with no lag and now works with ARC from your TV, with no lag (via new Apple TV 4K) And the audio quality is outstanding (as pointed out in review after review)
I’m using it with my PS5, Series X, cable TV. All work perfectly.
There are workarounds for this, but it requires going through Airplay or the AppleTV 4K eARK.
well said. That's why the "well, you aren't in the target demographic for this speaker" responses in rebuke to the criticisms are so amusing.
Apple hit the bullseye when it came to their "target", but they were fighting the wrong battle. The real battle was happening somewhere else, not a remote corner of the Apple walled-garden where only a few audiophiles venture to.
There are workarounds for this, but it requires going through a Mac or the AppleTV 4K eARK. There’s tutorials on YouTube.