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Sonos exists and it’s a hugely popular brand of speakers. Do people not know Sonos exists when they make comments like this?
I think you’re confused. HomePod and Sonos are not comparable. HomePod was positioned as some sort of wireless jukebox with Siri as some sort of DJ. Sonos ain’t that. People didn’t care enough to spend $350. Hope this helps.
 
I have 2 Homepods, I live in The Netherlands were it was never on sale. I bough them via a kind of Amazon, that sold German Homepods here.

Since some weeks, one of them started to do popping sound when iddle. Like every 30 minutes... pop. It is super annoying and Apple told me on the phone they can do nothing for me, unless I travel to Germany. It is super crappy that Apple doesn´t offer support. What if people move from country to country with Apple products?

now I dont know what to do, if I send it where i bought it, they have no more stock, so trying to fix it they will probably screw it, they are not exports, and i am sure Apple doesnt fix them but replace them.

According to multiple articles online, my homepod might have a short in the mic component. Getting the money back doesnt fix my problem, i want to have 2, not 1.
 
I did the exact same thing. When they announced that it would be discontinued, I bought another one to create a stereo pair with the one I already had. I allowed my Apple TV to automatically play through the stereo pair (one on each side of my TV), so I’m content. I don’t need anything fancy. I just need it to sound good. And the OG HomePods definitely check that box.
And being able to route audio from a Playstation back to the ATV/HomePod is simply awesome for gaming.
 
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The comparison is incorrect. It should be compared to the Sonos Five, Play 3 or Move. It was priced correctly. I’m not sure why there was so much confusion around the pricing
The Move isn’t that big of a difference compared to the Ones, in my experience the Move doesn’t have the same amount of bass as the Ones. Not to mention the Move is a portable speaker so it’s not really comparing similar products.

Comparing the HomePod to a Play 3 is reaching quite a bit and comparing HomePod to a Five is downright insane lol.

The original HomePod is only comparable to the Sonos One, which it does sound better than the One, but for around the same price or less you could get two Sonos Ones, which is then infinitely better than one HomePod.
 
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Apple would rather discontinue a superior product than sell it at a lower price. Its been out years so they could have easily reduced the cost.
In some ways superior, but in other ways it’s getting outdated with a lack of features supported in the S5 chips that’s not on the A8. Hopefully this means they want to bring it back with an updated model without cheapening the HomePod brand too much. Remember, they already officially dropped the official price of the HomePod once before from $349 to $299.
 
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Business-wise, that is almost always the right thing to do.
Not always, it depends the price elasticity of the item being sold. If lowering price increases the sales, a company may make more money by selling at a smaller per unit profit.

Consider the high profit margins has built into their pricing, they do have a lot of room to charge lower price and still make money.

If the HP cost $349 @ 30% margin, they make around $100 per device. And apple sells 10,000 HPs, they make $1M in profilt.

But, if they lower the price by $25, but increase their sales to 15,000 units, they increase their profit to $1.125M.

Obviously Apple played with pricing over the life of the product, typically through deals with third party sellers. They probably did not see much sales increase when the price was lowered.
 
I thought about getting a HomePod, adding to my collection of Apple things, but I couldn't get over the fact that it didn't have an AUX in. I get that it is design to connect to devices wirelessly, but being a speaker, an audio-in port is a must for me.

Oh well....

If I find a used one for really cheap one day, I might add it to my collection.

I agree, especially that you know that it's gonna have a limited lifespan in terms of support and eventually won't be able to connect to anything, because they will have stopped updating the firmware, and more modern OS will not support it, so you won't even able to configure it since it relies on the Home app, and it doesn't have standard bluetooth support either.

Aux port could have extended the life of it.
 
I have 2 Homepods, I live in The Netherlands were it was never on sale. I bough them via a kind of Amazon, that sold German Homepods here.

Since some weeks, one of them started to do popping sound when iddle. Like every 30 minutes... pop. It is super annoying and Apple told me on the phone they can do nothing for me, unless I travel to Germany. It is super crappy that Apple doesn´t offer support. What if people move from country to country with Apple products?

now I dont know what to do, if I send it where i bought it, they have no more stock, so trying to fix it they will probably screw it, they are not exports, and i am sure Apple doesnt fix them but replace them.

According to multiple articles online, my homepod might have a short in the mic component. Getting the money back doesnt fix my problem, i want to have 2, not 1.
I’m in the same situation (Belgium). One started to pop. It’s a very loud sound. I wasn’t sure what was causing it.
Maybe it’s picking up some static, or has to do with the power (mine have UK plugs)?
 
It doesn’t need to be portable. It competes with the successful Sonos line at the time which none of their speakers were portable. For its sound quality 300-350 was perfectly priced. It really was.
No, it was not. At least not for its target audience. People expected a smart speaker that would compete with Alexa and Google. If the price was fine they wouldn’t have to discontinue it.
 
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I gotta say that through my company and appreciation points I picked up a HomePod the day it was announced they were being discontinued. I loved that HomePod so much that I got another. They sound amazing and Siri does enough for me to find it quite useful.
While Siri is just weird at times, I fully agree on the sound aspect, they sound pretty great as pairs.
 
Truth is Apple was a little late to the game on this. When Homepods came out, I already had Alexas in each room, and to this day, they work perfectly, give great sound and are well worth the investment. Meanwhile, in addition to Alexa, I have slowly been building up my Sonos system, with surround sound in my movie room, sounder in the family room, Outdoor speakers connected to an Sonos Amp by the pool, and play 1's in the living room, back patio and garage ... After all this, Apple introduces Homepods, and expects people to buy them in droves ... too $$ after people already invest in other systems.
 
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With the new Apple TV 4K and eARC support, I find OG homepods to be more useful than ever on my TV setup. Apple should have waited a few more months before discontinuing it.
This is exactly it. No need for an ugly soundbar under the TV. I was barely using ApplTV since the TV itself now has all the apps (netflix, cable, ATV app, etc). Upgraded to the new Apple TV 4K just for the eARC feature and love it
 
I’m in the same situation (Belgium). One started to pop. It’s a very loud sound. I wasn’t sure what was causing it.
Maybe it’s picking up some static, or has to do with the power (mine have UK plugs)?

I saw a video on youtube, a guy showing that when the current changes the pop happens. Seems might be due to DC current and some kind of not so good component used.

At the same time, before 14.6 update it was way less noticeable, so i am waiting for 14.7, before I do something about it. A lot of times, it pops 8 minutes after stopping music, so i guess it goes to sleep, and current goes to less V?

No idea, but it is insane I cant be serviced by post, with France and Germany so close with Homepod post sale service. Big fail.

Apple asked me to put a profile to log all Homepod movements during 48h, I did it, and then after all the calls I told them I was in Amsterdam again, and told me they could not help me anymore, after ALL the fuzz And agreeing to replace it.
 
I think you’re confused. HomePod and Sonos are not comparable. HomePod was positioned as some sort of wireless jukebox with Siri as some sort of DJ. Sonos ain’t that. People didn’t care enough to spend $350. Hope this helps.
Lol what?
 
The comparison is incorrect. It should be compared to the Sonos Five, Play 3 or Move. It was priced correctly. I’m not sure why there was so much confusion around the pricing
The original HomePod is a great device that was mis-marketed. Too many people thought it was Apple's answer to the Echo Dot. I've got three (and a mini) and they're great.
 
The HomePod is a bloated POS. "360" aka quad speaker array that is diluted, and also seems to be directed downward to produce the kind of "amazing" sound that garners one living placebo effect of an audiophile to praise it's performance and a heard of disciples to descend upon an Apple Store for lame-o speakers reinventing the basics by merely bastardizing it (read: as if a "moar bass" pop EQ sown into the very innards lol). "

"But BigPotatoShill", you say, "sound is a subjective preference!" Sure, and ultimately it's fine if some prefer the H*mePod - or $1000 gold cables and amps on the other end of the continuum, but preferences are malleable to a degree and at least marginally exposure-dependent. More importantly, life is too short to squander away on bull.

Anyways, a Nest Audio Pair blows the HomePod out of the ****ing water and at significantly less cost. Frankly, just one still produces aa frequency response that is discernibly a step up in terms of clarity. Real, clean sub-bass, distinct mids and separation, relatively clear — though not piercing or artificial — highs. TheNextWeb's review (see also: Audio Science Review forums, it even impressed some among the cranks!) was dead right on this.

I encourage you all to give one - ideally two - a go upon the next biweekly sale ($80 for *one*) that seems to common with electronics in the last few years. They're really that good, I think it may be the best value above even the iPhone SE or M1 Air at this rate, but only by a hair.
 
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