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HomePod Turns Two, Lower-Priced Model Might Launch Later This Year

I owned one, then I sold it and bought a Sonos One with Alexa. The Sonos unit sounds as good, if not better than HomePod and it’s easy to use, responsive, etc. The HomePod just wasn’t.

Price is not its biggest obstacle - the software and Siri is. I’n an Apple fan, not an Amazon fan, but Alexa is years ahead of Siri, Apple shortcuts, etc which I found virtually unusable. I mainly use for radio, and I can get access to all the BBC stations I want on Alexa.

Like I said, I love Apple products, but HomePod is a dud in my experience.
 
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Why is the HomePod in the article in between books and stuff on the shelf? It's not a forward firing speaker.

I have a pair in the kitchen, and I was going to get another pair for my office but my 'never buy late in an Apple product cycle' senses kicked in. Australia also never got a good pricing correction like the US so it's still quite expensive here.

I have a couple of Sonos One (gen 1) in separate rooms. Sounds pretty awful before you run the phone waving tuning thing (never gets old...) but I still prefer the sound profile of a HomePod.
 
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On my work desk I got Sonos Play:5g2 and HomePods - both setup as stereo.

The HomePods by far has better quality sound in stereo - and much flatter pink noise band overall.

Sometimes they do pump the bass to high but overall quality is better than Sonos Play - measured with NTI Audio XL2 with Type:1 Microphone and precision test signals from NTI.

If only HomePods had a 3.5mm input I would skip the Sonos in a heartbeat. But the wireless lag is simply not good enough for video editing. The Sonos Stereo setup has a slight "turn on" lag but once running they are fine.

So HomePods with 3.5mm input with no lag would be my absolute preference for a computer speaker setup.
 
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I really wanted to buy one or two but from day one of its release and after reading the specs I called the Home Pod a disaster. Malfunction problems w Siri, no Spotify compatibility, sound quality that was just ok and way overpriced. Seems not much has changed in Apples attempt to polish this disappointing turd by lowering the price and spitting out silly press releases about new builds in an attempt to make good. Hopefully a new and improved model is on the way.
 
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Nozuka said:
Doesn't seem to have a high priority... the old one is still not available in many countries.
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I’d rebuttal and ask then What do you consider a ‘priority’? Because Apple just released the Homepod in India I believe two weeks ago. Sometimes newer products like the HomePod might have a smaller demographic in certain countries, and are slow to expand, but it doesn’t mean it has to be ‘Priority one’ To launch in every country at the same time. I’m sure there are contingencies why Apple doesn’t launch certain products right away in other countries versus there more lucrative markets like North America, U.K and China.
 
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Machead2012 said:
I really wanted to buy one or two but from day one of its release and after reading the specs I called the Home Pod a disaster. Malfunction problems w Siri, no Spotify compatibility, sound quality that was just ok and way overpriced. Seems not much has changed in Apples attempt to polish this disappointing turd by lowering the price and spitting out silly press releases about new builds in an attempt to make good. Hopefully a new and improved model is on the way.
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You read the specs? How does that make it a disaster considering it is foremost a speaker.

There seems to be a commanality to all the people calling HomePad rubbish, bad sound quality and over priced..... they don't actually own one.
 
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I currently own 2 regular sized Echos and 6 Echo Dots (all current gen) and I absolutely love them. Alexa works in a way that Tim Cook could only dream Siri would work and the sound quality is just fine for me. — Apple is gonna have to really step up its game to woo people like myself if they expect us to jump ship.

That being said, I have made it a point to buy smart home products that work with both, Alexa and HomeKit, just in case I ever decide to switch over.
 
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there is no need...

The problem with this product is that apple need to market the HomePod like AirPods, the videos of the product is silly and you don't understand nothing from them, the customer need to have sense of the incredible sound quality combined with the ecosystem in order to justify a 300$ worth in his mindset, as of now it only the "Siri speaker״ for many folks out there...

in 300$ the HomePod is a steal and very CHEAP! worth way more than that..
and there are times that it lowers to 200$!..

echo? google home?
they are NOT in the same product category (they produce sound, thats the only common thing, its like HD TV vs 8K TV)

HomePod is light years ahead in terms of sound quality and clarity, The bass notes, the atmosphere is on another level.
 
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I really like my HomePod. Since I got it I listen to a lot more music. The sound quality is really great and almost up there with my hifi setup that costs over 10x more. But the convenience means I listen to it more than my hifi system.

sometimes I just want to throw it out the window when Siri can’t understand than basic requests! And I wish it had a 3.5mm input too.
 
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I love my HomePod's. Replaced my entire Sonos setup (I had Sonos Play:5 Gen.2 in pretty much every room) and I prefer the sound quality.

One thing the HomePod does much better compared to Sonos Play:5 Gen.2 (I did also own the Sonos Play:3 but that model is pretty much EoL, I also had Sonos One as surround speakers in my living room but as those are much cheaper I find it more fair to compare with the Play:5.) is spreading the sound around the room. The Sonos speakers behave and feels like regular speakers, they don't really do anything in order to make the sound feel like it comes from the entire room itself. Close your eyes and you can easily pinpoint where the Sonos Play:5 is located within the room. With the HomePod it becomes much more difficult, it does such a great job with reflecting the sound off the walls so it makes them sound more open and alive.

I pretty much use them as AirPlay 2 speakers. Siri doesn't work all that great and Apple has yet to add support for my native language even-though we have had Siri in my language for years on iOS. I do like how Apple keeps updating the HomePod with pretty much every iOS update but they haven't really improved on it's software at all in these two years which is disappointing. I'm accustomed to Apple offering great software support on their products so I imported the HomePod's "knowing" that my language would eventually get added with a update but at this rate I'm getting sceptical about Apple ever adding much to the HomePod at all.


My biggest regret with replacing the Sonos was getting rid of the Sonos Playbar, Playsub and Sonos One as surround in the living room. I got myself the Samsung HW-N950/N960 Dobly Atmos soundbar and o'boy how God awful Samsung still is with their software and they instantly drop support for their older products the moment they bring out something new. As a result of the Samsung HW-Q90R/Q96R getting released which is 99% identical to the HW-N950/N960 they no longer provide updates to the older series even-though there are heaps of bugs left in the product..
 
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farewelwilliams said:
it's a great product. will buy a second
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I bought 10 while they were on sale last year. Waiting for a sale to buy 2 more.
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Palmy_Jon said:
What is the point when they haven't even started to sell it in New Zealand? We get the latest iPhones before anyone else but 2 years later we still cannot officially buy a HomePod.
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Ahh the all important New Zealand market. So critical that most map makers can’t even be bothered.
 
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itsmilo said:
I am not a audiophile so my 3 Echos for less than one HomePod combined are working great! I am not shocked they only have a 5% share
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5% of what market? it is asinine to lump cheap crap speakers into the same category as well-designed great sounding speakers. This would be your better Sonos, google home max, HomePod. The entire group itself probably represents only 10-20% of the larger market to which 5% is used.
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Z3man said:
Have owned two HomePods and returned them both, sound quality is awful, and Siri is useless.

I can honestly say, if i was given one for free i wouldn't even bother turning it on.
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And yet you say this, knowing full well that the professional reviews state clearly that sound quality is excellent, not awful. So what is your criteria? Not sound quality, obviously. Or you are looking for a highly colorized speaker (i.e. built in sound profile, not accuracy, and that is fine, but that does not mean accurate speakers sound awful)
 
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I have one and it does sound good(even though I preferred the sound before the first update) Siri works well with the basics but like all these ‘smart’ speakers depends on data sets and other services they access in the cloud that makes them appear useful. Just a voice interface at the end of the day and nothing else.

I would buy another one but everyone has a different experience :)
 
After the recent Sonos flim flam, why would anyone spend a lot of money on one of these “smart” speakers from Apple or any other company? I was burned years ago by Logitech when they stopped supporting a much cheaper UE speaker and vowed never again. Buy good speakers, buy good electronics to drive them, but keep these functions separate.
 
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RamGuy said:
Apple keeps updating the HomePod with pretty much every iOS update but they haven't really improved on it's software at all in these two years which is disappointing.
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Really? Have you been paying attention? There have been a lot of improvements/enhancements to the HomePod software. Maybe you are looking for additional features and they haven't released them, hardly the same thing? Apple has a site for making suggestions

personally, I love mine. Stereo pairing (an update), as a speaker off of Apple TV, multi-user support for Siri (an update), enhanced HomeKit support (an update), scheduling (an update) better alarms (an update), multiple timers (an update), control via Apple Watch.
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RogerWilco said:
After the recent Sonos flim flam, why would anyone spend a lot of money on one of these “smart” speakers from Apple or any other company? I was burned years ago by Logitech when they stopped supporting a much cheaper UE speaker and vowed never again. Buy good speakers, buy good electronics to drive them, but keep these functions separate.
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umm, Apple is not Sonos?
 
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Biggest problem with HomePod? No native Spotify support. Until HomePod supports Spotify, I’ll stick with Sonos/Google.
 
Sound quality of these is very good, but at the price point they ran into Sonos which integrated with Alexa. Apple should have bought Sonos. Well OK. With Siri Apple is still screwed.
 
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