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HomePod Should Launch 'Soon' as Inventec Begins Shipments to Apple

Hustler1337 said:
The Echo Dot caters to a certain market price point. It's intended for those who occasionally listen to music and need access to Amazon's AI assistant and it does it for cheap. Why are you comparing the HomePod specifically to the Echo Dot?
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Because people are acting like the junk smartspeakers of the world are going to destroy the market for Apple because of a 2 month delay. Someone in this thread said, "too late." It's not too late:

1) Because it's Apple and Apple is usually not first...they weren't even the first smartphone.
2) Because HomePod is a different product than anything from Amazon or Google

It's just annoying people declare it dead or too late before being released. The Echo in general is very poorly built.
 
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I got my wife an EchoPlus for Christmas and we love it. Alexa is useful and entertaining, and the speaker sounds pretty good too. I've been very tempted to get other Echos given how inexpensive they are, but am waiting to see the reviews of the HopmePod when it finally gets released.
 
Mad Mac Maniac said:
The OP wasn't saying that the Echo isn't about sound quality, he's saying the market for smart connected speakers (in his opinion) isn't about sound quality. And I would tend to agree. I think it's good to have a range of quality for those who want it (and I think the new Echo Plus is pretty good at half the cost of the HomePod), but primary utility (to me and the other poster) is being able to have them spread all around the house and the functionality of the assistant.
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What about Apple makes you doubt their ability to disrupt a market that has already been established somewhat, particularly when they are focusing on sound quality (not the focus of most other smart speaker offerings)?
 
GaryMumford said:
Was it? I don't recall anyone saying the iPhone, iPad and iPod were "too late" before being launched!

I think the only reason HomePod sales will struggle is the awful Siri.
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They did. Especially with the iPod. I kinda thought they were right until I tried to help a friend set up his Nomad MP3 player. Man, that thing could do everything but nothing well and it took us an hour to get it do anything! While I'm planning on getting a HomePod, I'm not 100% sure it will catch on and neither is Apple.

https://medium.com/@joeljrichards_10357/the-problem-for-apples-homepod-7f8e6ab2c734
 
Baymowe335 said:
The Echo is priced affordably because it's a piece of junk, despite the ability of Alexa to answer a few questions.

We'll reserve judgement on HomePod until it's actually released.
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Go back to my post and let me know where I said it was stellar audio gear. What I said was it was affordable to place around the house for adequate audio AND whole-home voice control. I also said there are lot of great sounding wireless small speaker systems. HomePod isn't new to the concept. So the problem I see with HomePod is that only the most ardent Apple fanboys with AppleMusic subs are going to find it useful. It doesn't work for people that want an Apple Siri speaker network because it's too expensive for that purpose (and big too) & audiophiles are not going to be attracted to it.

So please tell me what market it's going to disrupt and why?
 
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This is fine, and I do want a homepod, but Apple seriously just needs a way to put Siri all throughout my home and cheaply. Just a microphone, a speaker, and connection to the internet. It is so frustrating when I'm holding my baby, but I have my apple watch on my wrist and iPhone 7 plus in my pocket, yet neither will answer to "hey siri". Yet, I have very easy access to Alexa because it's always listening. Apple needs to stop slacking on this, like they've done with HomeKit.
 
Ted13 said:
Inferior? Its competitors sound better? We all have our priorities and having heard Amazon's version, I don’t think they are in the same ballpark
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I believe the debate is software rather than hardware. Apple's gonna win hardware, but have struggled with Siri.
[doublepost=1516202916][/doublepost]It would be interesting to know what caused them to miss the much-valued holiday shopping season.
 
GaryMumford said:
Was it? I don't recall anyone saying the iPhone, iPad and iPod were "too late" before being launched!

I think the only reason HomePod sales will struggle is the awful Siri.
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Yes, it was. With the iPhone. Not those words, but Palm CEO, for one, said something about they've been working on this stuff for years, its a mature market and Apple can't just walk in and get it right. Others said it was a mature billion dollar market and Apple can't expect to make a dent.

As for the iPod, Apple were considered late weren't they? They were far from first. I seem to remember they were deemed too late, but I'm not sure. Anyone?
 
This will be the most expensive non-functional speaker on the market. Siri is rubbish.

Amazon Echo - 2 years ahead in the functionality. True that they will be blitzed by design and speaker quality.

But, I would rather have a product that just works and in this case, it ain't the HomePod with Siri.
 
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nStyle said:
$350 for an inferior assistant.
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Apple's HomePod isn't about Siri, but rather the future of home audio

"HomePod isn't a "smart mic" seeking to force Siri into more places to intercept users' attention. Despite cloying narratives of how Amazon is dominating the "smart speaker" market it created out of necessity after Fire Phone imploded in a cloud of smoke, Apple has always had a commanding lead in the number of people using its Siri voice assistant worldwide.

There are a few million Alexa speakers (mostly all in the U.S.) but a billion devices that run Siri—and they're not confined to a room but rather in everyone's pockets and on millions of wrists (in addition to CarPlay vehicles, Apple TV and on Macs) all ready for immediate use.

For Apple, Siri is a convenience feature, not an attempt to break into a market it's been walled out of. Siri is already everywhere. Apple isn't trying to force people to use it, and it's not blocking Amazon or Google (or Microsoft) from putting their own smart voice-enabled services on the iOS App Store.

The narrative that Apple is woefully behind Alexa or Assistant has things backward. Apple doesn't make any money off people using Siri. If voice services were a truly compelling feature in smartphone purchases, people would have bought Fire Phone and Pixel. That did not happen. Describing Apple as "behind in voice services" is a distraction away from the much larger failure of everyone else's voice service to establish a valuable smartphone platform."
 
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Baymowe335 said:
In all seriousness, does anyone actually think the Echo or Google Home are amazing products and APPLE has no chance of disrupting this market?

The Echo Dot is literally a piece of trash. Have you seen it in person?
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This is the issue that I see lots of people failure to understand. The dot is simply an input. That's it. If you think it's anything else you're horribly wrong. What it does is gives me the CHOICE to pair it with a budget sound system, an OK, or an insanely high end that is tailored to my needs and my desires. Apple is going the route of trying to put Siri (lets not get started on how crappy I think that is) in a medium level sounding device. Nothing wrong with that, but you're locked in. I'd rather get a Sonos that will allow me to CHOOSE my assistant, and let me CHOOSE my audio sources from different streaming services.

If you're all Apple and will always be Apple, go ahead. The walled garden is good, most of the time. If you try and venture out, it all seems to fall apart and that's why I prefer neutral services and devices if possible.
 
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You can already use your phone or iPad to ask Siri to play music to an AirTunes speaker.
 
With an AirPlay connected Yamaha pushing a very good 5.1 setup in my living room, as well as some Bowers and Wilkins attached to my Mac in my home office that really supplies all my sound needs. I can play direct from my phone to the stereo or control Airplay from the Mac to the attached speakers, stereo, and a pair of airport express attached speakers upstairs for essentially whole home audio.

And my phone handles all the assistant stuff I need. Not sure I see a need for this at all.

Unless you are a younger person with no audio system and thus speaker would be that for you. Anyone invested in an Airplay or Sonia system really wouldn’t be interested in this.
 
bobob said:
Apple's HomePod isn't about Siri, but rather the future of home audio

"HomePod isn't a "smart mic" seeking to force Siri into more places to intercept users' attention. Despite cloying narratives of how Amazon is dominating the "smart speaker" market it created out of necessity after Fire Phone imploded in a cloud of smoke, Apple has always had a commanding lead in the number of people using its Siri voice assistant worldwide.

There are a few million Alexa speakers (mostly all in the U.S.) but a billion devices that run Siri—and they're not confined to a room but rather in everyone's pockets and on millions of wrists (in addition to CarPlay vehicles, Apple TV and on Macs) all ready for immediate use.

For Apple, Siri is a convenience feature, not an attempt to break into a market it's been walled out of. Siri is already everywhere. Apple isn't trying to force people to use it, and it's not blocking Amazon or Google (or Microsoft) from putting their own smart voice-enabled services on the iOS App Store.

The narrative that Apple is woefully behind Alexa or Assistant has things backward. Apple doesn't make any money off people using Siri. If voice services were a truly compelling feature in smartphone purchases, people would have bought Fire Phone and Pixel. That did not happen. Describing Apple as "behind in voice services" is a distraction away from the much larger failure of everyone else's voice service to establish a valuable smartphone platform."
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Holy crap that person is swimming in the kool-aid. It honestly sounds like Apple's obsessive significant other. How convenient they compare it to Amazon rather than Google, the obvious competitor. So many things twisted in that to bend it to their clear and obvious bias.
 
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I originally planned to purchase the HomePod. But after it was delayed to early this year, I gave in and purchased a Google Home instead for $70 on Swappa.

I really didn't think I would get my $350 worth when I flip back and forth between Apple Music and Spotify. Plus if we're being honest, Google Assistant (and Alexa) are leaps and bounds better than Siri at this stage in the game.
 
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I'm very much looking forward to the HomePod release. I love music and if it betters my old iPod Hi-Fi then I'll purchase several new HomePods.
 
bobob said:
Describing Apple as "behind in voice services" is a distraction away from the much larger failure of everyone else's voice service to establish a valuable smartphone platform."
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That sentence says it all. Amazon has to rely on Echo etc. because their phone was a complete flop.
 
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drewyboy said:
This is the issue that I see lots of people failure to understand. The dot is simply an input. That's it. If you think it's anything else you're horribly wrong. What it does is gives me the CHOICE to pair it with a budget sound system, an OK, or an insanely high end that is tailored to my needs and my desires. Apple is going the route of trying to put Siri (lets not get started on how crappy I think that is) in a medium level sounding device. Nothing wrong with that, but you're locked in. I'd rather get a Sonos that will allow me to CHOOSE my assistant, and let me CHOOSE my audio sources from different streaming services.

If you're all Apple and will always be Apple, go ahead. The walled garden is good, most of the time. If you try and venture out, it all seems to fall apart and that's why I prefer neutral services and devices if possible.
Click to expand...
I don't think it's anything else. I think Apple's speaker is so much different that the Dot is literally irrelevant to Apple's strategy.
 
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