I was reading that some Apple engineers were interested in making a great speaker. So this is more of “we can make a better speaker than the compitetion” response. And they did.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Ming-Chi Kuo Says Apple Considering Lower-Priced HomePod After Potentially Lackluster Sales
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I was reading that some Apple engineers were interested in making a great speaker. So this is more of “we can make a better speaker than the compitetion” response. And they did.
I only setup this account to block the ADF, but I had to respond to this.
Yes. Siri is that bad. I was away from iOS for a couple years, and I got one of the new cheap iPads so I could test websites on it while in development.
I tried asking Siri, "How do I dim the screen?"
Hilarity ensued until I got so frustrated that I asked my Pixel 2 and instantly got the answer.
Siri... never again.
Apple is a premium brand. If anyone thinks $350 is excessive for a high quality speaker system which delivered top-notch sound quality and comes with the security of the walled garden of Apple, a smart assistant, advanced features (some announced, but annoyingly not yet available), then this is not a device for them.
Buy an Echo or something. You'll get audio quality of a beer can and a pretty good personal assistant. The quality is not there, but the price is right.
Same advice goes to everyone complaining about the cost of the iPhone or the MacBook or the iMac or the iPad... Just buy a less expensive alternative if you don't think the value is there. Stop bitching so much... It's a free market.
So, I don't think the HomePod is overpriced. It's an amazing device at a reasonable cost. If it's too much, buy something else. There are ton of options out there. That's the beauty of it.
Buy an Echo or something. You'll get audio quality of a beer can and a pretty good personal assistant. The quality is not there, but the price is right.
Same advice goes to everyone complaining about the cost of the iPhone or the MacBook or the iMac or the iPad... Just buy a less expensive alternative if you don't think the value is there. Stop bitching so much... It's a free market.
So, I don't think the HomePod is overpriced. It's an amazing device at a reasonable cost. If it's too much, buy something else. There are ton of options out there. That's the beauty of it.
It would hurt the financials and negatively effect the margins. I don’t want a device that is chained to the past and that’s what line in is.
Maybe you're not fully paying attention to Apple if you believe this is a "me too" moment for them. Apple is a close-follower and not a true pioneer and the fact they build a smart speaker says they see the market maturing and ripe for entry. I expect this is only the beginning for Apple in this category.
HomePod doesn't even compete with Echo and is arguably positioned to become far more integrated into the Apple ecosystem than the Google Home is with regards to Android.
HomePod is not just a device. It's a piece of the overall strategy for Music and home entertainment. I expect great things from the HomePod in the future.
Nothing is wrong with Siri. There seem to be a large number of trolls claiming Siri is "way behind" the others, and I couldn't disagree more. I have a Google home device and an Alexa device, as well as Siri enabled devices. The Amazon Alexa device is often as dumb as a box of rocks. Same with Google Home. I've seen comparisons, but the comparisons are unrealistic. All my devices are pretty good at understanding what I say. Knowing the answer to the question is another matter. For me, Siri has the answer far more often than the other two devices. And, Siri is always with me, unless I forget my phone at home.
I’m skeptical. Lowering the price this soon is a terrible idea that only undermines HP and Apple. The price is to much for what it is but Apple is stuck with it now. Time to make lemonade.
Rather than lowering the price Apple should bundle in a year of Apple Music and also clearly out line updates and new features by year’s end.
Also a HP mini with good Siri support would also help I think.
Rather than lowering the price Apple should bundle in a year of Apple Music and also clearly out line updates and new features by year’s end.
Also a HP mini with good Siri support would also help I think.
Why are you so concerned about Apple's margins? Are they hurting financially?
You don't have to use line in just because it has it. But it would open up the device to tons of other uses and users... as would Bluetooth.
Do you mind explaining how you came to the conclusion that homepod will be more integrated in it's own ecosystem than a Google home with it's Android ecosystem? I have only seen a majority of users responses and how homepod cannot do x,y,z, yet Google on the other hand, can. Wouldn't this mean the exact opposite of your statement? I mean Siri pretty much is useless anything except the basics, so I'm a little confused.
Siri is OK. It does need improvements in understanding natural language and complex sentences but none of the competitors do that either. The biggest frustration with Siri is every device has its own distinct version and capabilities. Apple need to unify Siri across all it’s platforms and devices.
You seem to want them to compete on price aka a race to the bottom. They will not lower the price and regardless of if I am using line in or not. I don’t want it and since Apple knows the way forward is a world without wires they will never add it.
I don’t care about the use case for others and only care about how I would use it only.
Quite the anti-consumer attitude. You don't even have an argument as to why it would be better without line in or bluetooth... you don't want anyone to have it because you don't personally use it.
If anything, line in / bluetooth "chains it" to the future since Apple will render the HomePod obsolete before you know it as they move on to some other proprietary protocol.
As for the price, it wouldn't be a "race to the bottom"... it would simply be reducing the price of the existing product to move more and make it accessible to more people.
No way would I buy one. I have the Echo and Alexa rocks! I also use Amazon Music Unlimited, SiriusXM, Spotify, etc. Works well with all. The sound is “ok” for what it is. Fortunately, there are other options. Sonos One with built-in Alexa, or you can get one of the pucks for like $20 and connect to pretty much anything (Bose, etc).
Before you call me a hater: 2 MacBook Pros, 3 iPhones, one iPad and an Apple Watch in my household.
Before you call me a hater: 2 MacBook Pros, 3 iPhones, one iPad and an Apple Watch in my household.
Yes, yes, and it doesn't seem to understand anything that resembles language....
I welcome Ming-Chi Kuo to the staff of Apple inc as "New Product Director" responsible for all new ideas.
{sic}
{sic}
Hopefully they will iterate and make a smart speaker. This thing deserves a lot more attention.
I dont consider what others need when I am buying a product for MY enjoyment.
It would be a race to the bottom to placate some folks. Anyway they won’t lower the price
Or you could wait longer than 2 months for Apple to execute their strategy on this product.
None of you have any clue what Apple should do better than Apple.
Apparently people are not very concerned that someone might learn that you ordered a pizza for lunch or that you turn on the lights at night.
It's pretty ridiculous how you have to defend your opinion by stating you have apple gear to avoid being called a hater.
I myself recently converted to using Google assistant for home automation and find it's way better than apple's offering.
There are plenty better speakers tha HomePod. HomePod is not a better speaker, it's a weird one: with no easy way to use the audio sources you want, do stere or EQ. Their only claim to fame is the ability to "fill the room" with mono sound. Not really a difficult task.
In all reality, its not that bad. Its just not great. Alexa and Google are nowhere near perfect. Alexa is less “artificial intelligence” and more voice command with a robust set of commands (through 3rd party devs). Siri is more of an actual artificial intelligence, where she tries to interpret the intention behind your words. Meaning, you can ask Siri a command using natural language, rather than remembering a distinct command. Problem is, Siri is not nailing this part. She often will transcribe your words incorrectly, because she’s trying to interpret your meaning. I’ve seen it happen with the real time transcription. But this can be fixed. Siri also needs better microphones to properly transcribe. As we’ve seen in HomePod, with better mics her success rate is substantially higher.
9/10 times, if Siri transcribes your words correct, she will do the right thing. Its really not as bad as people hype it up to be.
The MAIN thing people mean when they say Siri sucks, is Siris lack of 3rd party ecosystem. Which means Siri does less than Alexa and Google. SiriKit has been a half assed attempt to open up Siri to developers. And SiriKit is not as robust, because it inherently comes with the sandbox and privacy restrictions baked into iOS and Apples whole philosophy on services. If Apple makes SiriKit more robust, or creates an entirely new approach for Siri extensibility, then she’d be on more equal footing. Google has the benefit of the entire Google search engine AI (and lack of privacy restrictions) they’ve worked on for the past decade, where Apple has to rely on integrated services for questions, otherwise she returns “here’s what I found on the web.” And she tries to do this in a sandboxed environment using iOS’ extensions framework.
Apple CAN make Siri better, because they do have a remarkable foundation in the original Siri engine when they bought out Kittlaus. The original work on Siri is arguably better than Alexa or Google. Its just a matter of leadership and direction right now. Which is precisely why Apple hired a new (highly qualified) executive to oversee precisely that
