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HomePod Struggling to Gain Market Share Alongside Cheaper Amazon Echo and Google Home Speakers
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Don't misunderstand me, my friend. Alexa is much better at responding to voice commands for me as well. I suspect there's a reason for that to do with how much 'listening' the device does. That's the point of my earlier example.
I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the constant eavesdropping, but I will concede Alexa has become a far far superior voice assistant when compared with Siri. It's not even close.
Heh. Just because it can be done doesn’t mean it can be done easily. I use both Siri and Alexa. Siri because I have to when I need a phone-based assistant, and Alexa when I want something that is generally intuitive and useful. Apple defined the market and led it when Siri was initiated. They should be ashamed of their incompetence that Alexa/Amazon kicked Siri’s ass so badly after such a huge head start. Apple stumbled into that innovation, but sadly they couldn’t capitalize, Amazon exploited their weakness.
And yet the research says that Siri is more capable than Alexa since the last updates by Apple late last year.
LoupVentures reported recently that in their latest annual test of voice assistants, Siri's accuracy rate was 79% compared to Alexa on 61% and Cortana on just 52%. Siri was only 7% behind the leader, Google Assistant on 86%.
And Siri is improving at a faster rate of 22% (in 9 months) compared to only 7% for Google and 9% for Alexa in 12 months.
So not only does Siri have 3.5x the usage market share compared to Alexa, it is also 18% more accurate than Alexa.
I’m waiting for the day when Siri can make calls and impersonate a human.
Anyhow Siri isn’t as bad as people make out. The google assistant is much more advanced and I didn’t think Apple are going to catch up anytime soon. There is an argument for Siri being better than Alexa but for now I’d give it to Alexa despite what that research claims. I have all 3. The study didn’t tap into the assistant’s advanced features, probably because the other 3 have no hope in hell or competing. It also didn’t take into account Alexa’s skills. It was basically asking questions and making commands which are basic things that all 3 of them can do.
One should always take "research" undertaken by business organisations. They can skew the methodology to suit their own or their clients ends.
I think there’s an app which simulates AirPlay. Might want to google it up.
I was hoping that the HomePod would be as flexible as my Google Home Mini ($20)+Chromecast Audio ($10)+IKEA Eneby speaker ($80) combo. It isn't... not even close. Although the HomePod sound quality is amazing, it doesn't sound 3x amazing to me.
I haven't tried the Echo yet, but I know I should. I've had great success expanding the Fire HD tablet and Fire TV far beyond what Amazon intended so those have been great values. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Echo perform similarly.
It shouldn't be a surprise that the HomePod is as locked down as it is. Perhaps consumer resistance to it isn't so much about the price or function but a loosening of Apple's grip that their ecosystem has on their customers (more people who enjoy Apple products are feeling less of a need to remain solidly in the ecosystem).
Hi Sracer, I'm interested to know what the HomePod can't do that you can do with the Home Mini, Chromecast Audio and Eneby speaker? I've personally found the HomePod quite capable in combination with my AppleTVs, Homekit, Security cameras, Philips Hue lights and smart power plugs so I'm curious to know what you found lacking?
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You might like to know that Loup Ventures previously rated the HomePod and Siri lower than Alexa until Apple's late-2018 updates so I think we can trust this particular research group.
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3.6 million 350 dollar HomePods sold in the USA alone (let alone the rest of the world) generating 1.4 Billion dollars revenue for Apple is not what most people would call "DOA".
Maybe people aren't aware or just like to place their own spin on things. I played with the homepods at an apple store, the sound is very good.
How does “research” know what’s useful to me? I use both Alexa and Siri routinely. My personal “research” very clearly tells me that Siri sucks by comparison.
Research helps people who are not currently working with both assistants understand the capabilities of each. But as they say your milage may vary. I think comments like these come from those of us who's personal experience with Siri is much better that what others say. It helps to ground our personal experiences with some data. Now this changes nothing for you. If Alexa works better for you then use it, but understand that others have different experiences.