I think a lot of the knockers for HomePod are either to friggin cheap to buy one or wrapped up in other ecosystems that don't have as good a speaker.
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Ming-Chi Kuo Says Apple Considering Lower-Priced HomePod After Potentially Lackluster Sales
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In order for things like HomePod to work, Apple has to start getting better integration with third parties, not just with their stuff. Apple TV has some of the same challenges. How about integration with all of the new cord cutting services like DirecTV Now or Sling, etc. I see all the Alexa and Google commercials where people ask their speaker to turn on a specific TV show or movie. Don't have that with HomePod or even natively on the AppleTV for DirecTV Now. It's hard to imagine Apple slipping so far behind in this space. Not to mention that HomeKit support across the industry is pitiful. "Hey Siri, show me who is at the front door" Siri: "Sorry, I don't play well with your really cool Ring Doorbell." Apple, if you want to save HomePod, start by expanding Home Kit and get Siri to play better with 3rd parties...
You know, if Siri was actually good and worked with multiple users, I'd consider picking this up on sale for like $299. Or I'd even pay full price if Apple would update it in the future to do something cool like act as a hub for true wireless power or even an 802.11ax basestation. It just doesn't do much right now.
I think HomeKit software authentication, which is now finally live, should help with the HomeKit expansion. I only have two smart devices left that are not compatible.
Maybe this could be added.
I don't own a Home Pod, so I am unsure about how things work on it. If user 1 set up the Home Pod, and user 2 was currently using the Home Pod, does the Home Pod know where to direct the web browser info to (like what user is currently using it)? Can you have multiple users on the Home Pod?
I think I get that part. Siri is unusable outside English speaking countries when asking for film, songs or artists.
Though that might be the case that the HomePod yet has not been rolled out anywhere else. For iPhones or iPads it didn’t matter that much, those devices offer enough other Siri features. But for the HomePod it means the only core function is missing.
I suppose its possible, but i dont think its something timmy will do.
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I agree, i said that when it was 1st released.
I didn't think so until they hired the google and amazon guys to help improve siri.
Buy a google home mini for £50 and anything from Harmon Kardon and you're doing pretty well and expandable, and much smarter. Or Buy a Sonos with Alexa for £200 and you've got a very decent competitor amped up by a superior assistant, and ultimately expandable around your home. For less.
And on both of these example setups you can play all the music you want from where you choose to stream it.
So, while you perhaps can't get a better sounding speaker that has an assistant built in, you CAN get a better sounding expandable system if you pair an echo dot, or a google home mini with your existing awesome speakers that are probably capable of multiroom for less money. And on top of that you get to climb out of the walled garden, and play whatever the **** you like from wherever the **** you like , and when you're dancing around your front room you'll not care any ***** about whether or not the HomePod might have beam formed itself into the environment.
"This music coming from all corners of my house would sound so much better and more nuanced if it was coming from my single HomePod in the corner of my lounge" - said no-one ever.
If someone cares about sound quality, someone (as me) already has a good wireless speaker. Plus "Hey siri, play this..." with my iphone works very well in my apartment so I don't just have the need to get a HomePod yet.
Have Sonos with Alexa. Could not be happier. Apple has been very frustrating in the last couple years in terms of innovation.
right around $200 would be fitting. The biggest turn off regarding the HomePod for me is that it has no aux out, and is software-dependent so when Apple stops releasing updates 3 years from now it's going to be collecting dust on a shelf.
Thanks for your attempt to insult me. It’s good to know if someone dissents from your point of view you immediately go to name calling.
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Regardless I hope they don’t open it up or lower the price.
It’s not that bad all the time but sometimes it’s just infuriating. I mostly use it for reminders and it took me a while to get Siri to do it correctly, otherwise you get reminders like this...
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Absolutely not true. People will spend THOUSANDS on speakers that don't have any "smarts" at all. $349 is actually pretty cheap for what might be referred to as a "quality" speaker.
Of course there are cheaper speakers, but not many people argue that considerably cheaper speakers sound as good or better than HP. Most of the arguments revolve around relative "smarts", features "just a software update away" may address, many of which ALREADY come WITH competing products that can cost much less... or that some cheaper speakers sound "good enough" for some people's purposes, and thus that "but I can buy 2,3,4,5+ of this one vs. 1 HP" kind of post.
...which poses an interesting thought experiment. Key competitors have "Dot" products too. These are basically the "smarts" separate from a speaker. You buy a Dot-type product and hook it up to whatever speaker you may have. Apparently there is a good market for these as they came to market some time ago and they haven't died a "nobody wanted this" death already.
Imagine if Apple had decided to roll out a HP Dot product. How well does it sell vs. competing Dots? I suspect in that hypothetical, one can discover a key value proposition issue with HP.
Or just read these 100+ posts and hundreds more in variations of this same story over the last few days in which Apple fans are writing stuff like "I am an Apple fanboy, but..." and "I typically buy anything Apple sells, but..." followed by fundamental & recurring crits. Some of these crits can be fixed with "just one software update away," assuming that software update(s) does indeed arrive. Others- like Siri not seeming to at least "catch up" with the competition- just confound against backdrops like "$2XX billion in the bank" and "just works" mantras and so on.
I agree. This seems to be Amazon's strategy summed up as "Get Alexa EVERYWHERE." Where it leads is that the bulk of the world will get accustomed to using Alexa for voice assistant functions. Siri seems doomed to dominating only within the walled garden:
- MacOS initially ruled the graphic operating system space until Microsoft rolled out Windows (a few years later) and then adopted the "everywhere" strategy. Now MacOS runs on approx 8%-10% of the world's computers.
- iOS dominated the touch screen smart phone space until Android rolled out with an "everywhere" strategy. Soon iOS will run on less than 10% of mobile devices.
- Siri was the ONLY mainstream voice control interface for a couple of years, but here comes Alexa, etc and Amazon has adopted an "everywhere" strategy.
Siri had the potential to eventually be THE voice assistant. Instead, it seems to be on the path of being THE voice for the relatively small Apple niche. While that can certainly work for us users of Apple hardware, the same kinds of limitations from walling ourselves off in the garden eventually apply more and more. Some of us are perfectly OK with that, but others are able to notice features & benefits we don't have- maybe publicly or privately covet such features- but can then only wait & hope that "the most profitable" corporation decides to roll them out in our preferred product instead of having to potentially switch to the competition.
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Fair and reasonable response. But.. those $300-$500 speakers are not all-in-one solutions, can be attached to multiple sources, and can easily be combined into stereo, 5.1, 7.2 or even 1943.7 if that's really what you want. The HomePod... just sits there, won't take input from any of the common audio sources, and is only available as a 1.0 solution. Apple may certainly be TRYING to compete, but they've failed miserably.
That said, there are a lot of companies in this world that would be incredibly happy with sales of 200k devices!
I asked Siri the other day to play more music by the current artist playing (Metallica) and she replay "Ok, here's some other popular song by Linking Park"
There you go... that’s another reason why HomePod’s market is limited. That said, I have a great stereo and one of the best wireless speakers on the market but I got a HomePod anyway.
I have to say, it was worth every penny. It’s amazing how there’s no real sweet spot (sounds great no matter where I’m in the room), and the computational audio wizardry gives it a sound signature and clarity that seems unique to HomePod.
Why? How would it negatively affect you if the price were lowered?
And how would it negatively affect you if the product worked with Bluetooth or line in?
I think one thing a lot of people are forgetting here is that it's ok for Apple to fail at something. They failed every now and then under Steve Jobs, and we can't expect them to be perfect now any more than we should have expected them to be perfect then. If the HomePod really does fully fail (I really don't think it will), it's not the end of the world.
Dear Tim,
It’s the software.
(sure, a little bit the price, but trust us, it’s mostly the software. Positioning the product in the markert as being about the sound and not the smarts because you had no choice due to Sir,i failed. Software (cloud, AI, and all it’s flavors) is the competitive vector that will undo the Apple juggernaut.)
Love,
Your Customers
P.S. Only one timer? What did you think was going to happen?
It’s the software.
(sure, a little bit the price, but trust us, it’s mostly the software. Positioning the product in the markert as being about the sound and not the smarts because you had no choice due to Sir,i failed. Software (cloud, AI, and all it’s flavors) is the competitive vector that will undo the Apple juggernaut.)
Love,
Your Customers
P.S. Only one timer? What did you think was going to happen?