HomePod New HomePod 2 coming soon

[- rob -]

HomePod doesn’t compete with cheap Alexa in the same way that iPhone doesn’t compete with cheap Android and MacBook doesn’t compete with cheap Chromebooks.

Wrap your brains around the fact that Apple has created the best-in-class smart speaker, its a BILLION dollar product, and they don’t have to do a damned thing but make more of them.

Enough with this ridiculous narrative. HomePod is a terrific success.

I am not disputing that HomePod is a great product, or that it is financial success.

I disagree that it is not in competition with Alexa devices. There is a major voice-command / agent market war going on. Amazon has a huge advantage due to its massive product catalog and ability to use customer profiles, untethered from the privacy restraints Apple has.

This is particularly obvious given a special iOS release feature is removing training data and Apple is defaulting turning off the privacy on the controls.

HomePod is Apple’s only entry in commanding the home and a voice interface. Recall, Apple essentially created this market with Siri. It was not an obvious thing to other companies then.

So this is not about sound hardware it is about share of home. And when the only product Apple offers is a few hundred dollars it is going to continue to yield valauable, strategic product placement to Amazon and Google.

 

[btrach144]

It's expected to be ratified this month or next, no changes are coming hence why we see it in other Apple devices like the iPhone. I'd like to be able to get every device on my network using 802.11ax to really make use of it and I don't expect to replace the HomePod as often as other devices.

802.11ax is a pretty massive improvement and will likely be a rather long lived standard.

Wi-Fi 6 Certification is here to speed everything up

A wave of better, faster Wi-Fi gadgets is coming

www.cnet.com

Y’all a month late. Even MR had an article.