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No Doubt its a great sounding speaker i bought one at xmas time for $249 and ultimately returned it. I thin took advantage of a QVC deal an got six echo 2nd gen device for $300 so basically $50 each, they sound decent good enough for what I'm doing with them and i have 1, and sometimes 2 (paired up) in every room. I listen to Apple Music and Audible mainly and am happy with them. And Alexa definitely does more
 
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I mean Siri is full retard compared to Google Assistant.

But that's why I have a Google Home and a Google Home Mini and hacked Hey Siri for Hey Google.

Google just works. Apple just restricts everything not Apple.
 
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All the complaints here from other owners are valid. Most definitely the issue is not the price, but the features: Siri is quite honestly garbage.

Apple needs to make use of the A10 chip in the HomePod and provide an update to Siri that crushes the competition, somethis she is far off from now.

Also, a $50 price cut and making it available to more countries might help. What is Apple doing with HomePod?

If they vastly improved Siri and cut the price by $50, I might purchase another one.
 
The quality of music has gone down with time. If I want to listen to those crappy songs (or reading words) from Drake or Cardi B, I don't need a 300$ speaker. What's there to listen?
 
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).
No way are they giving up on Apple TV. They update it frequently and it's honestly the best tv operating system out there. I tried all the other and Apple TV is the best. And I know A LOT of people who use it, unlike the HomePod.
 
Looks like Apple is getting some pushback from consumers with their pricing. Not trying to debate value, but many folks have difficulty spending this kind of money. Fantastic design or not. Win some lose some. Apple is winning the car stereo with Carplay but will lose the home. Home automation has advancements coming regularly and at a fast pace. Apple has much difficulty updating items like this at a reasonable pace.
I would think that CarPlay is winning mostly due to iPhone market share. How much money does Apple make off of CarPlay?
 
Welcome to the club...
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‘Hate’ is thrown around way too often. Disliking or not wanting to buy a product doesn’t equate to ‘hate’.

There are a lot of valid arguments / criticism against HomePod in this topic. Again, it’s not ‘hate’.

I recently purchased a HomePod brand new for 300 total. Yes, it’s a bit much for a speaker.
But I have to say the product is magical. I don’t understand all the hate it gets.
 
For someone that owned all 3 (amazon echo, Google Home, and HomePod) it wasn’t just the price that turned me away from the home pod because hardware wise the HomePod was amazing and the sound it produced blew everything else I had included all the other smart speakers away. So what was the biggest downfall of the HomePod for me? How freaking stupid Siri is!! You can’t ask her anything without getting some dumbass “I’m not sure if I can answer that” all while at the same time Google and Alexa has no problems answering the question. If Apple would just take the time to enhance Siri and made her “smart” than they would have a real winner!
 
It’s not just that though. Some people want their sound more pure and want to control it.

...and they're probably best advised to get a regular pair of speakers from a good (but not pretentious) brand that have the cubic volume to produce full-range sound and hook them up to a decent (but non-pretentious) amp. It will probably cost a lot less.

The reality is that all speakers colour the sound (and monitors that try not to sound weird at first) and if you want to hear the original music "as intended" bear in mind that unless it comes from a specialist source it will have been mixed, EQ'd and (analog) compressed by the recording engineer to suit 'typical' speakers or headphones.
 
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 .

Define trash sound will you. Music sound quality just like the music genre one listens too very subjective. Another example, photography, the very best photos on any IOS device, someone will say they are trash.

The good news, we have choices. What is really interesting on this discussion, when did Apple start to consider market share as their main focus. The Mac has terrible market share from the beginning of time. Apple keeps making Mac’s with high end pricing and low market share numbers. I suspect the HomePod will be no different.

IMO two HomePods have nowhere near the sound quality across the entire range as my Sonos Playbar for the same price. And my Sonos PlayBar actually functions with my TV. Sound very subjective.
 
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We bought a 43" 4K TV over the holidays for US$380. It is by no means top of the line. But Apple wants people to pay US$350 for a speaker.

Get real Apple. People view these things as appliances. It's not personal like a smartphone. They don't want to think about these things which means they don't want to pay a lot of money.
 
Needs to work with Spotify and Spotify Connect.
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The quality of music has gone down with time. If I want to listen to those crappy songs (or reading words) from Drake or Cardi B, I don't need a 300$ speaker. What's there to listen?
Do you honestly believe that mainstream pop is the only music being produced today? Fyi Spotify is great for music discovery. I wouldn’t know half the bands I currently love if I didn’t have it.
 
It’s simple. Siri is garbage. People by Smart speakers for the “smart.” Yes sound quality is awesome but if I want a good sound quality wireless speaker, I’d just buy a Bluetooth speaker for half the price
 
I'm not sure this comes to a surprise to anyone, except maybe Apple's executives....

I don't think Apple executives would be surprised at all, considering the substantial differences between HomePod and $50 to $100 Echo-like devices. And, that HomePod is primarily about delivering a great music experience.
 
It’s simple. Siri is garbage. People by Smart speakers for the “smart.” Yes sound quality is awesome but if I want a good sound quality wireless speaker, I’d just buy a Bluetooth speaker for half the price

I think HomePod is way too expensive but Bluetooth limits you to MP3 quality. You can spend all you want but you’ll never get better sound out than what the file contains.

If Apple had gone after Sonos instead AND it could actually do 5.1 or even 7.1 Surround Sound they could have sold an Apple TV ‘reciever’ and the accompanying speakers, probably for less than a sound bar based Sonos system.

Still a very expensive system but it could work with anything you own that has a sound output. And around the same price as a comparable system.
 
Siri's reputation is letting it down. It used to be terrible.

Now, Siri can answer questions better than Alexa, but people assume it's worse.

For me, Siri is still stupid, because she doesn't speak my native language /half sarcasm.

Actually I see some improvements, but after 7 years, it's nowhere near usable for me - except for setting the alarm.
 
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