Ming-Chi Kuo Says Apple Considering Lower-Priced HomePod After Potentially Lackluster Sales

[WarHeadz]

Honest question from someone who never uses Siri: is it really that bad? I mean is it so bad that it won’t understand basic, everyday commands? What so wrong with it?

I don’t think it is. Personally, I use it every day. My iPhone experience would be annoying without it. The only reason I haven’t bought the current generation of AirPods is because I’m waiting for the next generation which supposedly will have support for “Hey Siri”

 

[rizzo41999]

Called this - they outpriced the consumer in this particular market.

 

[newellj]

Kuo believes the "major miss" in HomePod shipments could be attributable to the speaker's design and pricing, among other factors.

From where I sit, that's totally on target. I can buy an Echo Dot (have several) for 1/10 of the cost of a HomePod. And - this is big - Alexa works 95% of the time. My experience with Siri has been nothing but problems, going all the way back to the iPhone 4S. As a distant third reason, I don't subscribe to Apple Music and don't have any interest in listening to my music on one of these products at this time. So HomePod is a complete miss for me, and I am very deeply immersed in the Apple ecosphere.

 

[avanpelt]

I would buy a HomePod if it would integrate with AppleTV. no more hunting for the remote and holding down the Siri button.

Bingo. I should be able to say to HomePod (or any iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch that's in my home), "Hey, Siri, watch HGTV in the Family Room" (or whatever the location is for the Apple TV if I have multiple in the house, which I do) and it should automatically launch the app on that Apple TV. Apple needs to do a serious mea culpa with regard to Siri this year. Hopefully, their bringing the AI guy over from Google means that they're planning to breathe new life into Siri. It's on life support right now, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Or you could just read Apple's guidelines on what Siri can be used for on HomePod. It's not really that hard. Use it for those things and there isn't really any problem. Use for things Apple never says that it supports and you'll have an issue.

Of course. Comply. Resistance is futile. Follow guidelines to make Siri work as good as it can. Or try just about any of the competition options and not need instructions from the mothership to get more utility out of them.

I like Apple just fine but Siri- who was FIRST to market- seems to NOT have been paying attention in virtual assistant development class. Maybe she's a party girl? Others born upwards of years later have apparently been studying harder or just gifted at learning more quickly.

I was gifted a Firestick and assumed the group spin around here- that Alexa would be about as dumb/smart as Siri at best. But then I actually tried Alexa and realized the difference for myself. AND, Alexa keeps "sneaking" in via other products- the manufacturers of which are readily making deals with Amazon to include Alexa while Apple locks down Siri for itself. We know how this goes. Eventually Alexa will be in everything except just a few products sold only by Apple.

 

[jonnyb098]

A smaller $150 'brain' still isn't going to interest consumers if the brain isn't as smart as the competition.
I'd say that consumers don't want the speaker because of the walled garden approach, and Siri's blatant not-as-smart-as-google/alexa problem.

Apple are way behind the curve here. Any user can have an equal or better sounding home assistant speaker setup for less money using either google's or amazon's more intelligent AI and hardware that can fit into their current speaker system.

A cheaper (but still not as cheap as the competition) voice led assistant from Apple, is still a poor quality rival next to say, Alexa and a couple of Sonos Ones.

There's just no reality distortion field here that is gonna do it for Apple this time.

Actually every review out there directly compared the HomePod sound quality to the Google Home Max, which is 399. So no you cant get the exact same or better sound quality for less from competing smart home speakers.

Siri is a different story. For music its great. For other things its so-so. But Apple is marketing it more for music. Except the market (proven by all the complainers on here) is looking at it as a voice assistant that also happens to play decent sounding music . So to them its an expensive , garbage assistant speaker. From a music and sound perspective its very much worth the money (for those who use apple music).

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Poor market research on Apples part. Define what the needs are in a market, then how to best improve on those market needs. It would appear that Apple did a poor job in their market research. That build it and they will come Apple approach, struggling this time around. As per this article, Apple will make the necessary changes, a bit late in the game nonetheless. Do not wait too long Apple, others have seen your product and vision, they are sure to respond.

The story goes this was in development for 6 (SIX!) years. Then it launches with only promises of stereo pairing and whole house audio "just a software update away."

Apple of old... the "just works" Apple... where are ye? I miss you.

 

[spiderman0616]

Umm how? The portable speaker market (no smarts) is a 10+ years old and growing. Bose and others have had GREAT sounding portable speakers for a while now.

The so called "digital assistant" speaker market is what two years old? Three at the most. All but the Google Max suck in comparison to the Home Pod, when it comes to sound quality.

As far as Digital Assistants....well I think the current wave of them, all of them, are lame. 95% of the time I can do whatever I ask them to do faster and better with my phone manually. All of them can be tripped up easily. All of them require a special way to talk to them, vs natural language. All of them need more powerful hardware and mountains of data and at least 5 years of tech innovation to even get close to being a true assistant.

Recent studies of how people use them are revealing....

Top 3 Amazon requests

Set a timer
Check the weather
Play a song

Top 3 for Google

Check the weather
Play a song
Set a timer

Sport score requests only 10%

Add an item to your todo list 5%

For me Siri can do all of that and do it pretty well. Does Siri need to get better, sure as long as it keeps privacy at the top of the list.

For someone that lives in the Apple ecosystem to include Apple Music, the Home Pod is a great portable speaker.

I tend to agree here.

I have done a lot of experimenting with Alexa with my alarm system and thermostat because neither of those items in my house are currently HomeKit compatible. Here is the EXACT command I HAVE to use to get Alexa to set my security alarm:

"Alexa, ask Alarm.com to arm stay my security system." You can't say "Hey Alexa, arm my security system." or even "turn on my security system". And you DEFINITELY can't say "Set the security alarm". These are all natural things I should be able to tell a voice assistant. I shouldn't have to do verbal acrobatics to get what I want. But if I don't use that exact phrase, she either says she can't do that, or she tries to set a wake up alarm instead.

With the HomePod and my Hue lights, smart locks, etc., there are a zillion different ways I can ask Siri to do something and she will catch my drift most of the time, even if I don't quite give her the correct room name or the correct device name. And I don't have to ask Siri to ask another service to ask a device to do something. I just tell Siri directly to do it.

I have no experience with Google Assistant, but I find Alexa to be even more frustrating than Siri. I'll take a conversational voice assistant that's a little more limited over Alexa any day. With critical items like lights, I just need the thing to know what I mean. 99% of the time, Siri does.

 

[cliffster82]

They should go with a grocery-inspired deal here. Buy two for $499!

 

[Lioness~]

Smaller speakers with AirPlay without Siri. I would buy them.
Want nothing to do with her, she's a joke.
I don't have the patience for her.

If Apple can't do better, it's because Siri mirrors the level of intelligence in Apple today.

 

[charlituna]

I would buy a HomePod if it would integrate with AppleTV. no more hunting for the remote and holding down the Siri button.

I suspect it will at some point. Probably not until they get the dual speaker stuff sorted out

 

[spiderman0616]

Of course. Comply. Resistance is futile. Follow guidelines to make Siri work as good as it can. Or try just about any of the competition options and not need instructions from the mothership to get more utility out of them.

I like Apple just fine but Siri- who was FIRST to market- seems to have been not paying attention is virtual assistant development class. Others born upwards of years later have apparently been studying harder or just gifted at learning more quickly.

I was gifted a Firestick and assumed the group spin around here- that Alexa would be about as dumb/smart as Siri at best. But then I actually tried Alexa and realized the difference for myself. AND, Alexa keeps "sneaking" in via other products- the manufacturers of which are readily making deals with Amazon to include Alexa while Apple locks down Siri for itself. We know how this goes. Eventually Alexa will be in everything except just a few products sold only by Apple.

I feel there's way more complying that has to be done with Alexa. The verbal trickery I have to use to get her to set my alarm system is ridiculous. If I don't use one specific sentence, she tries to set a wake up alarm instead. There is absolutely nothing conversational at all about her 3rd party skills. You have to ask her to ask other services to do things in a certain way or it doesn't work.

 

[charlituna]

but some apologists said that HomePod is like Apple Watch and people can not take just some sales numbers out of context...

But this isn’t even sales numbers. It’s a stock analyst with a vested interest in shorting the stock value to buy cheaper before WWDC making “might, maybe, could be” comments with zero actual data. So basically the typical data when it comes to Apple sales news

 

[WiiDSmoker]

I hope not because margins are everything and let’s keep it working with Apple stuff only.

If you open up HomePod to google music then you mine as well license Mac OS to third party’s.

This is the stupidest post I've ever read on here

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I feel there's way more complying that has to be done with Alexa. The verbal trickery I have to use to get her to set my alarm system is ridiculous. If I don't use one specific sentence, she tries to set a wake up alarm instead. There is absolutely nothing conversational at all about her 3rd party skills. You have to ask her to ask other services to do things in a certain way or it doesn't work.

Hey, I'm not arguing that Alexa is Jarvis from Iron Man movies. None of these assistants are perfect. My comments about this topic are simply relative... as in Alexa/Google/Cotana RELATIVE to Siri.

Take a 1st grader and put them against a 7th grader in most contests and the 7th grader is probably going to win. That doesn't make the 7th grader a genius or anything, just relatively superior in most contests. The 7th grader could still make bone-headed decisions and/or completely flop in some basic tasks, but relatively, they will probably be smarter and probably better at most tasks vs. that 1st grader.

Nevertheless, that 1st grader could grow up to be far greater than that 7th grader grown up. But the "parent" needs to decide to do what it takes to make their "child" the best of the group... stuff like FOCUS, nurture, dedicated work, competitive drive, invest more in them, etc.

So far, this is like the "first born" being overtaken by the second & third-born "children." And from the looks of these 90 posts, the "family" seems to be really pulling for the first born to wake up and get with it.

Personally, I'm first in line to want Siri to jump way out ahead of the others. That was actually my biggest hope when this HP product was a rumor and then "coming soon." Had it rolled out with a superior Siri, it is likely that Super-Siri would have propagated to the other Apple products that have Siri too. That would be a HUGE win whether one wanted an Apple-made Smart Speaker or not.

 

[redscull]

Or you could just read Apple's guidelines on what Siri can be used for on HomePod. It's not really that hard. Use it for those things and there isn't really any problem. Use for things Apple never says that it supports and you'll have an issue.

No, absolutely not. Siri is marketed as an intelligent assistant. As soon as you have to read the manual to know what its limited set of commands is, it has utterly failed at anything resembling an assistant. It is absolutely valid for a user's expectations to align with what competing products can do. Because if Apple isn't actually competing with those products, it has no chance of success with its.

 

[Drfter]

I would have bought one if it had an audio jack, optical and Bluetooth.

 

[Juicy Box]

Honest question from someone who never uses Siri: is it really that bad? I mean is it so bad that it won’t understand basic, everyday commands? What so wrong with it?

I guess it depends on your definition for basic, everyday commands.

I use Siri everyday on my iPhone, ATV4, and CarPlay.

While it has gotten a little better over the years, it leaves a lot to be desired.

One of the most annoying thing is that it directs me to the web browser for simple questions when using the iPhone.

It could be great on the ATV, but it is very, very limited, probably due to tvOS not having a web browser to be directed to.
Sometimes it doesn't understand a TV show name, unless I say "show me the TV show ___", and other times it will look it up just saying the name of the show. It is very inconsistent.

As for Siri on CarPlay, it seems to understand me a little better than the iPhone, but it isn't always helpful. This could be an issue with CarPlay/Maps, but looking up destinations, or getting directions is a hit or miss.

For example, I could be parked in Starbucks parking lot and ask Siri for the closest Starbucks near me, and it could give me one 20 miles away.

 

[avanpelt]

Apple jumped the gun on HomePod (which sounds odd to say since they were so late to enter the speaker space, but I think it's true). They should've made Siri much more capable before the HomePod was ever announced to the public. They should've hired the AI guy from Google, improved Siri, and then announced the HomePod. Lack of integration with other streaming services is also a big flaw with the HomePod -- especially when you compare it with Sonos. Also, they missed the mark on price, big time. $249 for one and $449 for a pair, while still pricey, is a whole hell of a lot better than $349 for one and $698 for two.

 

[jhudgins]

Fix it so I can set an alarm to Apple Music, initiate a phone call, recognize only my voice for privacy, control Apple TV, and knock $50 off the price tag and I’m sold.

 

[cBraunDesign]

$249 each and stereo pairing and I'd definitely have at least two Homepods. But currently it's just so much more appealing to go with a Sonos setup, both based on price and on features (multi-room support and Spotify).

 

[charlituna]

A smart home device that isn't smart and doesn't integrate with much, not even with itself,

I’ll give you on that. The sound is awesome BUT when I can’t control my Apple TV at least to start a TV show, that’s kind of a fail. That’s what I really want. Being able to pick my own trigger would be nice also. Third party control would be nice. But I could skip those to be able to route my TV sound, preferably in a stereo like 2:1 mode (my tv being the 1 and 2 home pods), and voice control what I watch via the TV app. Then they just need to better that app for searching, tagging favs etc.

 

[Juicy Box]

That said, it's not exactly the same in terms of function as Siri on iPhone/Mac

I think this is probably because Siri on the iPhone relies so much on referring the user to the Safari for so many things, and afaik, the Home Pod doesn't have a web browser.

 

[charlituna]

If you open up HomePod to google music then you mine as well license Mac OS to third party’s.

Bad parallel. Opening up HomePod is nothing like an OS. More like allowing, not allowing, third party applications on your iPad or laptop
[doublepost=1523635776][/doublepost]

I think this is probably because Siri on the iPhone relies so much on referring the user to the Safari for so many things, and afaik, the Home Pod doesn't have a web browser.

But given that the HomePod is linked to at least one iOS device in order to be set up, this doesn’t seem like it should be an issue. Just ‘handoff’ to the device Siri

 

[Karma*Police]

$349 for HomePod’s sound quality is an amazing value. Siri is essentially free so that’s not what’s holding back sales, if this rumor is true.

If anything, most people don’t care enough about sound quality to justify spending $349 for any speaker... either that or they already have a good sound system.

That leaves a limited market for a premium wireless speaker which has always been the case.

Personally, I think Apple should license Siri so that it’s everywhere, including in speakers costing a few bucks to a few thousand bucks.