HomePod Struggling to Gain Market Share Alongside Cheaper Amazon Echo and Google Home Speakers

[magicschoolbus]

You can't enter the market when it's already been flooded with $30.00 speakers. I have an echo- it's really a user interface rather than a speaker. I know like most people it sucks as a speaker, that's why I connect it to Bluetooth speakers in my home. If Apple wants market share they should do something similar.

 

[nate13]

Apple has never tried to be the highest volume sales company, this isn’t new (iPod HiFi anyone?).

I’ve got 4 HomePods, love the sound and the functionality especially now with Siri shortcuts. Truth is, audio equipment should last 5-10 years and the quality of the HomePod reflects that. Apple built a speaker, not a gadget, and like a previous poster said, it’s not an impulse buy. I had a whole google home setup before, and the audio quality was terrible and couldn’t get multi room audio to ever work correctly, and the hoops to jump through to use features on an iPhone were frustrating. I would’ve done Sonos, but to match the HomePods quality I would’ve bought Play:5s and missed on the smart speaker.

Is everyone on MR just broke and here to complain? If you can’t afford one, that’s cool, there are cheaper solutions that in some ways are better (voice assistance or integration), so go buy that. It’s like calling a Lamborghini stupid because you can only afford a Kia.

 

[macnchiefs]

IMO, Apple will abandon this market. Homepod has already told them the ceiling isn't high on what they can charge. They let amazon have apple music. There's simply no money to be made selling these type of speakers (or at least at apple's margins). Now I do think they could go higher end offering 5.1 system with siri as a compliment to apple tv but they seem likely to abandon apple tv as well (as it simply becomes an app on tv's).

It's not about making money on the speakers. Which is why Google is giving away their smart speakers any chance they can.

It's about platforms. And Apple has a lot of competition in that space

 

[alphaswift]

I have 7 Echos of various model types scattered around the house (3 Dots, 3 Echos and a Plus). I was interested in picking up a HomePod, but rolled my eyes on the price. Great sounding music I nice, but the Echos are good enough (especially the new Dots). If I really want the nice music someday, I'll pick up a Sonos One (once those Sonos idiots figure out how to fully integrate a One with my Echos)

 

[MrGimper]

Still happy with my 4x Sonos Play 1's and my Amazon Echos........

 

[chinito77]

Apple should just either scrap the HomePod or release a new version ASAP! This coming from someone who briefly sold Apple products but because there was no WiFi in my shop, couldn't set up the HomePod for display. Doesn't support bluetooth, over priced for "smart" features, and limited to just Apple Music. I hated the thing and just referred people to the Amazon Echo.

 

[kis]

Very expensive, Homekit still in its infancy, even after years (no multi-user support, no voice recognition, limited compatibility compared to Echo and Google Assistant), Siri doesn't seem to be improving at all, plus available only in a handful of markets. I'd be extremely surprised if they'd gained market share tbh.

 

[jcavanaug]

I'm fairly deep in the Apple ecosystem, but $349 for a smart speaker is just too much--especially for one with a sub-par assistant like Siri. During the holidays, I outfitted my house with three Google home minis. I'm not exactly an audiophile, so the sound quality is fine for me. I guess if I was more concerned with audio quality and didn't care about the assistant, I might consider the HomePod...but I'd have to make a lot more money.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Why are Sonos speakers never included in the list? Comparing the Sonos One is a more realistic comparison than budget speakers.

Agreed. Also, Sonos is still the best for multiroom audio without an always-on microphone built in.

I’m all for smart wifi speakers, but I refuse to buy anything with Alexa or Google Assistant.

 

[MrGimper]

I have 7 Echos of various model types scattered around the house (3 Dots, 3 Echos and a Plus). I was interested in picking up a HomePod, but rolled my eyes on the price. Great sounding music I nice, but the Echos are good enough (especially the new Dots). If I really want the nice music someday, I'll pick up a Sonos One (once those Sonos idiots figure out how to fully integrate a One with my Echos)

Is there some difference between the One and the Play 1 here? I just say "Alexa, play blah blah on living room" and it plays on my living room Sonos. Can do the same with "Bedroom", "Kitchen" etc.

 

[rizzo41999]

Got one for the holidays and love it. The Google Mini is collecting dust now.

 

[Stella]

Apple has never tried to be the highest volume sales company, this isn’t new (iPod HiFi anyone?).

Thats all marketing fluff from Apple: Set expectations low, and if it's a successful product, boast about how they are #1 with record sales and consumer satisfaction. Apple is a consumer fashion company.

Pod HiFi failed because consumers didn't want it, so the product was canned.

 

[Apple_Robert]

The Echo and Google Home is trash compared to the HomePod. The HomePod needs to be compared to other high end speakers. It’s like comparing a BMW to a Toyota and Honda.
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Sound is amazing. And the price justifies it. If you can’t afford it buy a google home or echo which has trash sound .

I can afford it.

As I said, it is limited in what it can do right now. If it had more features I would consider it.

 

[ryanwarsaw]

I’ll never understand what Apple was thinking with their approach to the smart speaker market. It’s almost like they thought “how can we make this thing more expensive?”.

And sell it below cost according to Gruber.

 

[LordVic]

(iPod HiFi anyone?).

you know comparing it to the HiFi is a terrible pooint to make? As the iPod HiFi was a massive disaster for Apple. High pricing with limited functionality in an ecosystem of the time that had a large market of 3rd party docks doing the same thing, if not more, at better prices.


I had an awesome iPod dock at the time that also had my alarm, AM/FM, and Aux input radio in a small form factor that cost about 1/10th of the HiFi and sounded pretty awesome.

Quite literally, the HomePod seems like they repeated the identical mistakes of the hiFi and are hoping for a different result.

 

[gsurf123]

There are way too many competitors in the smart speaker market with most being given away to help out the bottom line somewhere else in the company. I don't see it ever gaining any significant marketshare when Amazon all but gives theirs away and is feverishly adding functionality to it on a weekly basis. No one buying a smart speaker cares about sound quality so it does nothing more than drive up the cost of the product to make an effort and buy the parts for it.

 

[thadoggfather]

So that's why Gruber said they're selling them at a loss

to make people pity purchase the HomePod.

Pathetic...

I strongly dislike this modern Apple. One mind mindbogglingly dumb decision after the other.

 

[otternonsense]

And to think that this study reflects the (Apple-friendly to boot) US household market. I doubt these things sold at all here in EU. Case in point, I recently saw a big pile of HomePods stacked by a discount corner at a Saturn (Berlin) and no-one was going near it.

It's just a fundamentally flawed, confused product.

• Priced neither competitively nor "premium". Is it about the sound, or the "smart" features? If you're looking for big sound, you may as well splurge a bit more and get a Sonos 5. If it's about smarts.. well..
• It launched without proper software support, several months before Airplay 2 was even available
• So locked down that it only offers value to Apple Music subscribers and Siri users.
• So compact in size and yet so non-portable. If you're looking for sound AND portability you might as well get a UE Big Boom and you're set.
• Are we forgetting how it ruins wooden flooring and furniture?

The additional rumor that Apple contemplates a cheaper Beats follow-up is just miserably meh, and speaks volumes about the whole Beats brand and acquisition history. I wish Apple had gone all-in premium and acquired e.g. Bowers & Wilkins, so they could dish out awesome looking and sounding speakers to match their former high-end brand aesthetic. I'm against cheap-o Beats just as much as I hate to see Apple slumming it with fugly sideshow LG displays to complement their Macs instead of a revamped Cinema Display.

 

[mingravity]

stupid product simple.
at that price there are 2 options i see:
1) go for cheaper but decent options like amazon echo - excellent sound and alexa any day
2) little bit more money and go for high end home theatre system and apple TV (provided u r part of ecosystem already)

 

[Mackinjosh]

The device is too expensive and Siri still stinks.

 

[rmoliv]

Good. May this serve as a lesson and Timmy Crook learn from it.

 

[Edsel]

I own four HomePods and still have one Apple HiFi in use. I retired my mid-level audiophile system, gained more floor space by doing so and now enjoy music more than ever. Siri still has issues but its focus on music is is very, very good. From a security standpoint, I entrust Apple more than Google, Amazon, or Microsoft.

 

[Stevez67]

If someone buys the HomePod they're paying for a high end audio device that happens to have some smart speaker capability. You're paying for hardware and sound quality. With the Google and Amazon devices You're paying a pittance for a device that turns YOU into the product by collecting as much data on you as possible. The devices are lower quality and low price because the vendor makes the profit by selling your data to its corporate clients. That's ok as long as you don't mind making Sundar Pichai and Jeff Bezos another billion dollars by giving them your data for free in exchange for the convenience of asking their device trivial questions.

 

[Drfter]

I would of got one if it had some way to plug it into devices.

 

[stjohnswell]

"Siri-enabled" + "Beats speaker"

Two wrongs don't make a right.