HomePod Sales May Be Closer to 1-1.5 Million Than 3 Million Since the Speaker Launched

[73CortinaV8]

If Siri were better than Alexa, price wouldn't matter.

But since Siri is far far worse than Alexa, nobody is going to buy this thing.

I find myself delighted with all the things Alexa can do and disappointed with some of the basic **** Siri can't do.

This is going to be like google maps vs. apple maps.

 

[DNichter]

If Siri were better than Alexa, price wouldn't matter.

But since Siri is far far worse than Alexa, nobody is going to buy this thing.

I find myself delighted with all the things Alexa can do and disappointed with some of the basic **** Siri can't do.

This is going to be like google maps vs. apple maps.

That's subjective though. I have found Siri on my HomePod to be better than Alexa on one of my trashed Echo's. Ultimately it only matters what works best for the individual.

 

[73CortinaV8]

But show it to me in effing Sweden and I will buy at least two!!!

these aren't for sale in sweden?

I go to stockholm quite a bit for work. If people will buy 'em, I'll come with a suitcase full

 

[wigby]

That’s typically what happens when a product is late to a market and priced higher than expected.

You mean every single product in the history of Apple? Yeah, that sounds about right.

 

[Internet Enzyme]

HomePod shipments totaled an estimated 700,000 units in the second quarter of 2018, giving Apple a roughly six percent share of the worldwide smart speaker market, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Strategy Analytics previously estimated HomePod shipments totaled 600,000 units in the first quarter of 2018, suggesting that worldwide shipments have reached 1.3 million units since the speaker became available to order in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom in late January.

That figure is much lower than one shared by research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, which recently estimated Apple has sold three million HomePods in the United States alone since the speaker launched.

The significant variance in the datasets stems from the fact that Apple doesn't disclose HomePod sales, instead grouping the speaker under its "Other Products" category in its earnings reports, alongside the Apple Watch, Apple TV, AirPods, Beats, iPod touch, and other Apple and third-party accessories.

Apple reported revenue of $3.74 billion from its "Other Products" category last quarter, up 37 percent from $2.73 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Shipments aren't sales, either, so it's impossible to know exactly how many HomePods ended up in the hands of customers.

If we had to guess, we'd say the Strategy Analytics numbers are probably more within the ballpark, as the HomePod is a niche product. The speaker is also available in just six countries, after launching in Canada, France, and Germany in June, with no indication when availability may expand to other regions.

Versus the Competition

HomePod was the world's fourth most popular smart speaker in the second quarter, behind the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Chinese company Alibaba's Tmall Genie, according to Strategy Analytics.

Amazon remained the leader in the category last quarter, with the Echo commanding an estimated 41 percent market share, while the Google Home finished runner-up with an estimated 27 percent market share, according to Strategy Analytics. Alibaba took third place with an estimated seven percent market share.

While the HomePod has made somewhat of a dent, Apple still has significant ground to make up, which is to be expected given its smart speaker launched around two to three years after its biggest competitors.

It may be tough for Apple to gain further market share unless it releases a more competitively priced model, as the HomePod at $349 is considerably more expensive than the Amazon Echo, priced from $50, and the Google Home, $129.

To that end, rumors suggest Apple may have a lower-priced HomePod or a Siri-enabled Beats speaker in its pipeline.

Article Link: HomePod Sales May Be Closer to 1-1.5 Million Than 3 Million Since the Speaker Launched

I feel like the homepods main consumer base and target customer is the apple fan who wants to have it all. basically just a collector. i dont see a reason for the average consumer to get it over an echo.

 

[wigby]

I just bought my second one yesterday and absolutely love it

My 7.1 AV receiver is being repaired so I decided to pair my HomePod to Apple TV and am pleasantly surprised. Since I have a large 15' screen and a 4k projector, I'm considering another HomePod to fill the space properly with sound.

BTW, does anyone know if Airplay 2 support on AV receivers supports playback on wired speakers and HomePod simultaneously?

 

[User 6502]

Why are we still comparing the HomePod to a 50$ Echo? It’s a voice assistant “speaker” versus a real music speaker that also has Siri.

That thing is really not a ‘real’ music speaker. It’s sloghtly better than other smart speakers but its definitely worse than any decent ‘real’ speaker of similar price.

 

[Shanghaichica]

A million people bought that? Wow

I bought two.
[doublepost=1534266255][/doublepost]

My 7.1 AV receiver is being repaired so I decided to pair my HomePod to Apple TV and am pleasantly surprised. Since I have a large 15' screen and a 4k projector, I'm considering another HomePod to fill the space properly with sound.

BTW, does anyone know if Airplay 2 support on AV receivers supports playback on wired speakers and HomePod simultaneously?

It sounds really good. I initially had one paired with my Apple TV and I got another last week. The sound is really nice and since I do all of my tv viewing through my Apple TV even though I have cable the set up works for me.

 

[User 6502]

A lot of people don't care about music quality enough to spend $350 on a speaker. I think if they managed to come up with a good $150 speaker they would sell like hotcakes.

If someone cares about music quality won’t buy the HomePod. They’ll buy a proper pair of speakers and connect them to an amazon dot if they want smart features. They’d get better sound, better smart assistant, stereo sound and probably also more money in their wallet.

 

[Shanghaichica]

That's subjective though. I have found Siri on my HomePod to be better than Alexa on one of my trashed Echo's. Ultimately it only matters what works best for the individual.

Siri works better because it integrates with my phone for things like my schedule, can read me my messages and I can dictate messages. I can’t do these things on the echo dot I have. I’m an amazon prime subscriber but I’ve no interest in using amazon prime music. I want to use Apple Music. I can pair my homepods to my Apple TV. Also even the most expensive echo device doesn’t sound as good as one of my homepods. I can control music playback from any of my iOS devices, my Apple Watch and my Mac. So Alexa and the google assistant might be smarter but they can’t do these things for me.
[doublepost=1534266688][/doublepost]

I feel like the homepods main consumer base and target customer is the apple fan who wants to have it all. basically just a collector. i dont see a reason for the average consumer to get it over an echo.

Maybe it’s an Apple customer that used or would have used other devices like the Sonos speakers. The customer wants good sound quality but prefers the HomePod because it integrates better with their Apple devices than another high quality speaker.
[doublepost=1534266760][/doublepost]

If someone cares about music quality won’t buy the HomePod. They’ll buy a proper pair of speakers and connect them to an amazon dot if they want smart features. They’d get better sound, better smart assistant, stereo sound and probably also more money in their wallet.

Why would I want an echo dot when it can’t read my messages and I can’t dictate messages to it?

 

[groadyho]

If someone cares about music quality won’t buy the HomePod. They’ll buy a proper pair of speakers and connect them to an amazon dot if they want smart features. They’d get better sound, better smart assistant, stereo sound and probably also more money in their wallet.

That's our set up, same with our fire tv. Tbh for 350 you can get hella nice speakers that make a homepod sound like an echo dot
[doublepost=1534266887][/doublepost]

Siri works better because it integrates with my phone for things like my schedule, can read me my messages and I can dictate messages. I can’t do these things on the echo dot I have. I’m an amazon prime subscriber but I’ve no interest in using amazon prime music. I want to use Apple Music. I can pair my homepods to my Apple TV. Also even the most expensive echo device doesn’t sound as good as one of my homepods. I can control music playback from any of my iOS devices, my Apple Watch and my Mac. So Alexa and the google assistant might be smarter but they can’t do these things for me.
[doublepost=1534266688][/doublepost]
Maybe it’s an Apple customer that used or would have used other devices like the Sonos speakers. The customer wants good sound quality but prefers the HomePod because it integrates better with their Apple devices than another high quality speaker.
[doublepost=1534266760][/doublepost]
Why would I want an echo dot when it can’t read my messages and I can’t dictate messages to me?

If you have an android phone you yo can accept and make calls even

 

[DNichter]

I feel like the homepods main consumer base and target customer is the apple fan who wants to have it all. basically just a collector. i dont see a reason for the average consumer to get it over an echo.

Obviously depends on the person, but I bought mine because of the sound, Apple Music integration, HomeKit integration, Siri, and privacy. I had Echo's and felt that the HomePod was better in every way.

 

[1applerules1]

My cat is a better personal assistant than Siri. And it got run over.

 

[ackmondual]

A lot of people with money to burn.

For both better and for worse, that's the typical profile of an Apple user, although TBF, I waited until my Ipad got reduced to half price before buying, so perhaps we do need to account for those that just buy old and/or refurbished Apple hardware at significant discount.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

If we had to guess, we'd say the Strategy Analytics numbers are probably more within the ballpark, as the HomePod is a niche product. The speaker is also available in just six countries, after launching in Canada, France, and Germany in June, with no indication when availability may expand to other regions.

Back when I was in journalism class, I was told that you can sort fact from opinion when two or more disparate sources are in agreement. Now, that was a long time ago. The example given regarded Vietnam War reportage. Casualty figures could vary dramatically between AP/UPI (which had reporters only in the South) and Agence France-Presse (which had reporters in both South and North). If all agencies reported a battle, it was safe to report the battle as a fact. If the agency reports disagreed on the number of casualties, then it would be prudent to present all the casualty figures and let the reader decide.

In this case, both organizations estimate Apple's market share to be in the 6% range. Both disagree on how many units that 6% represents. So, by classic methodology we can consider 6% to be "fact."

Now, to fundamental arithmetic. If there's variance in the quantity that makes up that 6%, then there's a comparable variation in the quantity that represents 100%.

MacRumors' analysis (above) is flawed. The variance cannot be explained by HomePod being a niche product or an expensive product, or because it's available in fewer markets. Those factors are already baked into Apple's percentage. If you believe the category as a whole sells fewer units, then HomePod's 6% represents fewer units. Period.

 

[Fozziebear71]

Gotta love the MacRumors comment section’s general attitude on everything. Always salivating and drooling over the prospect of an Apple product failure so they can hoist the carcass on a pitchfork and parade it around the town square.

One of the best descriptions I have ever read on here about some of the Apple haters in this forum. Bravo.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Don't think so. You buy an Echo for around 30 bucks when Amazon puts it on sale and then you just buy an external ANKER speaker for it (either the SoundCore Mini for 25 bucks or one of the 'brick-sized' SoundCore speakers for 50 to 75 bucks). So, let's say, for around 80 bucks you have a combo that's more than good enough for your garage, kitchen or office -- which are the most common places where WORKING people listen to music. There are only a fistful of "audiophiles" out there, the billions of other people listen to music in the car or have it running in the background and don't pretend to be at a concert in an opera house...

And how good is a $25 dollar speaker going to sound in comparison to the HomePod? Not that great. I’m not an audiophile by any means but I don’t use my echo dot it google home for listening to music and guess what I have a £30 Bluetooth speaker and it sounds like crap in comparison to even one of my homepods.
[doublepost=1534267579][/doublepost]

That's our set up, same with our fire tv. Tbh for 350 you can get hella nice speakers that make a homepod sound like an echo dot
[doublepost=1534266887][/doublepost]
If you have an android phone you yo can accept and make calls even

Yeah but I don’t have an android phone and from next month I’ll be able to make calls on my HomePod. I already transfer my calls to my HomePod now.

 

[LordVic]

You mean every single product in the history of Apple? Yeah, that sounds about right.

I'd say a lot of the time, at least in the past, while they were rarely first to market with something, and they were higher priced, there was typically something extra of value that warranted or at least somewhat justified that.

The Homepod really doesn't really do that. Siri is regularly tested and shown to be the lesser of the 3 big assistance. The homePod is far FAR more limited in functionality than the competition. And it's priced nearly double it's main competitions product lines.

if you're 100% all in with Apple, it might make sense, but to the reset of us with mixed environments, it's a complete and udder dud

 

[TTTedP]

now there is the Sonos One - which doesn't sound quite as good, but it is pretty close, and I got one for $150 with a $50 amazon GC. So essentially $170 cheaper than the HomePod. It also supports AirPlay 2, Alexa and Google Assistant.

I didn't think Assistant was working with Sonos yet? I'll have to check on that if it is. Unless you mean by hooking up a Google Home to it which works meh.

I haven't been that happy with the Sonos One. I feel the sound is better on the Play 1's. TruePlay tuning crashes on the One where all other speakers were fine. Also AirPlay 2 isn't that great. Speakers frequently drop out of my group. I even had audio issues where while streaming music via AirPlay 2 and on a call at the same time, my voice would cut out and the receiver heard every 5th word. iPhone X <> Sonos One. Seems it can't do both at the same time.

 

[Rogifan]

Nobody but Apple knows. Whatever any so-called research firm speculates is irrelevant.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Great sound, HomeKit integration, Apple Music integration, Siri - this is why I bought two and I've been very happy with them. It's not for everyone obviously and I am sure Apple is aware of that.

You bring up a good point about buying multiple. Indicates that though there may have been 1M sales, there's a good chance that they have far fewer than 1M customers.

As for it not being for everyone - every single Echo and Google Home sell could have been a HomePod sale.

 

[Dominicanyor]

I wonder if Apple gives their employees a big discount to purchase those speakers. I really doubt that many units have been sold.

 

[DNichter]

You bring up a good point about buying multiple. Indicates that though there may have been 1M sales, there's a good chance that they have far fewer than 1M customers.

As for it not being for everyone - every single Echo and Google Home sell could have been a HomePod sale.

Yea I mean it's just an estimation, considering I think they said 4M in sales the other day. Ultimately I don't think it matters to Apple all that much. I disagree with your last point though - the Echo and Home go for as cheap as $30-$50. I think those are two completely different markets/customers.

 

[Coconut Bean]

For MacRumors editors: Google Home does also starts from $50 with the Home Mini.

 

[AgentOSX]

I have four, two stereo pair, and they are truly great sound.

I do wish Siri didn't suck, and Apple allowed more integrations with my TP-Link smart switches. I would drop Alexa and be HomePod-only in a heartbeat.