I would buy a Beats Pill if I were in the States. Was on sale for $99 on sites like Amazon. In Thailand, it costs almost $200. At that price I am just not interested as I will probably forget it on the beach first time I take it out of the house.
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New HomePod to Reportedly Feature 6-7 Inch OLED Display
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This is what Amazon gets really right for incredibly inexpensive products. My mom and sister use those. And they have iPhones.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
That's what happens when Seller shifts some effort into commoditized markets like speakers but then still seeks towards 50% margin. The offerings will seem overpriced-to-wayyyyyy-overpriced for what they are, everyone else seems cheaper and the latter gobbles up the market share while Apple gets to cling to "but who makes the most profitable smart speaker"... which, for some reason, we consumers celebrate and spread ourselves like maximizing a Corp profit is some great prize for us.
This will probably be a very profitable transaction for every unit that Apple sells. Meanwhile, the clones will gobble up most of those interested in a speaker with a screen by being priced significantly lower than this one. See "smart home" stuff. See computers. Etc. Welcome to Appleville.
Hop on Amazon right now and search for "Smart Speaker with Screen." There are already lots of these for sale, some priced BELOW $50. You know that Apple's cut is going to be priced much higher. So then we have to lean into some kind of iOS "superiority" over the featureset that this will likely deliver (presumably NOT being a full iDevice with all iDevice apps, but only a subset of those suited for this kind of product).
IMO: this is yet another round of Apple taking what they are already doing and repackaging it to try to harvest more revenue from the same stuff... when what they need is some lines of entirely new offerings. If I wanted this kind of thing, I'd take a retired iDevice already owned and mount it where I want this with maybe a $20 mount. And if I want speakers there too, I pick up some quality "dumb" speakers to connect to the iDevice (where almost the entire amount of money paid would be buying the speaker instead of about half of it siphoned away to a cash vault). But that's just me. I'm sure fans will jump on it like their lives depend on owning 1+ of these.
Maybe there is something truly special about this product still to be revealed. Else, if it's basically a gimped iPod touch with a fat speaker for probably $499+ (because margin seems to matter more than anything else), I just don't see the appeal myself... vs.- say- taking a retired (but fully functional) iDevice and mounting it in the same spot with 1 or 2 quality "dumb" speakers if the sound part is the big attraction.
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I would say more like 400% margins on these non-dominant market products. This isn’t an iPhone where AAPL is happy at 50% markup. They have to make $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for Timmy to get his stock grants annually. It’s survival of the top 1% - shareholders and screw over everyone else. Again, Apple was much better with someone in charge who didn’t give two cents what shareholders wanted and only desired to make great products that innovated on existing technology. For the long term viability of Apple, they need a product person as CEO. Employees, developers and mostly customers get raw deals from Apple while Timmy and his shareholders make out like bandits.
I don’t mean to detract Macrumors concept artists but what were they thinking with that nearly unusable pill shape design.
My mum picked up two Amazon Echoes with free Hue bulbs for less than £100 this Black Friday. They discount them so deeply. No way Apple can compete with that. I spent 4 times that on my HomePods and that was on a sale, too.
The newer Echo actually sounds quite decent, especially for the money.
My mum picked up two Amazon Echoes with free Hue bulbs for less than £100 this Black Friday. They discount them so deeply. No way Apple can compete with that. I spent 4 times that on my HomePods and that was on a sale, too.
The newer Echo actually sounds quite decent, especially for the money.
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As an owner of lots of HomePods and sadly as 1st Gen HomePod that died after a software update (Apple refuse to do anything as out of warranty) I will not be buying into more HomePods. A shame because I have liked the products, but they are simply too unreliable and too expensive to justify replacing after just a few year (of light) use.
As far as interoperability is concerned that is what Matter is suppose to address. It is still early and Matter is hit and miss but Matter works so much better on Apple devices than it does with Alexa or Google Home. Google Home will barely connect with Matter devices and when it does it either quits working or is very slow to react.
All I hope is that they keep a speaker focused version of the HomePod and not switch everything to a speaker with display concept. The current HomePod (not the Mini since that sounds awful to me) is an excellent sounding speaker and I have several stereo pairs (new and original design) spread around the house.
If they abandon this concept and move the HomePod to a speaker with display, I suspect I will have to move to Sonos for this duty once they stop supporting the current HomePod (unfortunately they are only Airplay compatible so you do not have the option of having a direct wired or BT option which means you are entirely dependent on Apple providing software maintenance for them). I have a pair of Sonos ERA 300s and Sonos ERA 100s but they do not sound as good as the HomePod in my opinion, so I use the HomePods in preference to them. I have a full multimedia setup and high end twin speaker set up for serious listening, but the HomePods are extraordinarily good in my opinion and would be a sad loss if Apple switch to this new concept as rumored here.
If they abandon this concept and move the HomePod to a speaker with display, I suspect I will have to move to Sonos for this duty once they stop supporting the current HomePod (unfortunately they are only Airplay compatible so you do not have the option of having a direct wired or BT option which means you are entirely dependent on Apple providing software maintenance for them). I have a pair of Sonos ERA 300s and Sonos ERA 100s but they do not sound as good as the HomePod in my opinion, so I use the HomePods in preference to them. I have a full multimedia setup and high end twin speaker set up for serious listening, but the HomePods are extraordinarily good in my opinion and would be a sad loss if Apple switch to this new concept as rumored here.
You'd think that with Trump huffing and puffing about tariffs that Apple would use a different national source for those displays.
What different source? All electronics seems to be produced in China these days. Is there even an other source?
Hard pass, whom is literally going to be hands on or next to a speaker that’s intended to be stationary away from the user?
So impractical yet so me too device… if Amazon does it now apple has to do it too?
Steve would say gfy to this 😂 prove me wrong.
So impractical yet so me too device… if Amazon does it now apple has to do it too?
Steve would say gfy to this 😂 prove me wrong.
Exactly, well said!
I can wager money this device will never see the light of day. If I’m wrong apple may need new management asap!
Apple Intelligence hasn’t come to Siri, yet. What we have so far is pretty much the same Sir as last year. By springtime we are supposed to get a newer Siri with some AI incorporated. It might use AI to interpret requests. It will use App Intents to improve how it work with other apps to automate them. We won’t get a fully interactive Siri until a year later.
Amazon subsidized the price of the Echo/Alexa devices on the assumption that people would shop on them. After they spent $10 billion on Echo/Alexa, they found out that people don’t shop. They ask for trivia and current weather. Amazon has pulled development of Alexa and is adding more ads to the responses.
Personally I've bought my stereo pair (HomePod 2) to listen to music, get Siri to play or turn off, or even higher or lower volume.
Apple's upcoming third-generation HomePod will feature a 6- to 7-inch OLED display, according to a new report by Korean outlet SE Daily.
MacRumors concept render
Citing industry insiders, the Korean-language report claims that Apple will use Tianma, a Chinese display manufacturer ranked fourth domestically after BOE and CSOT, to supply the OLED panels for the new HomePod, set to be released next year.
There have been rumors about a HomePod with a display since 2021, and Apple actually seems to have several related smart-home products in the works that feature displays. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has suggested Apple is developing several HomePod variants with screens, including one with an iPad-like display and built-in camera, and another featuring a screen mounted on a robotic arm.
Gurman had indicated these devices were unlikely to launch before 2025. However, a report last week from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed a new HomePod with display is expected to launch after WWDC 2025, likely in the third quarter of the year (a shift from Kuo's earlier prediction of a 2024 release). Kuo said he also believes Tianma will be the panel supplier, but he did not mention that it would be an OLED panel. Until now, the going assumption was that a new HomePod would use a lower-quality LCD panel.
The new HomePod will reportedly emphasize smart home functionality more than current models, suggesting a strategic repositioning of the product line. The idea that Apple is aggressively targeting the smart home market follows a recent report by Gurman about Apple developing an all-in-one home management hub with a square-shaped display, thick bezels, and a hemispherical base similar to the iMac G4.
Initial shipment expectations for the new HomePod are relatively modest, with Kuo forecasting approximately 500,000 units in the second half of 2025.
Article Link: New HomePod to Reportedly Feature 6-7 Inch OLED Display
I'm more than happy with what they do, for what I want and the sound is brilliant.....I'm not looking for an Alexa type devise.
I bought some lights that use Matter instead of Phillips Hue and they work better than Phillips for the most part. The one issue I have is they don’t retain the settings of color. No matter what I do the color and temperature revert back after they are turned off and come back on. I think the anticompetitive nature of Apple is to not allow that with their primary devices. I mean look at HomePod and the history isn’t favorable for us.
I don’t want ads more than anything. I am willing to pay more for everything to eliminate ads. But I still want to be able to use a Samsung phone an iPad and MacBook and have them all work with all accessories - interoperability. Apple makes so much from iPhone that they want everyone to own that to make the AirPods, HomePods, and everything work - including blue dot Messages technology which in my mind has become a standard. And having an Android/Windows app for that would at least placate some of the anticompetitive nature that is Tim’s Apple. When you’re the biggest, you should be scrutinized. When you force everyone to use all your ecosystem for the devices to work properly that’s anticompetitive and very bad for consumers. Just think if one company owned email. No, it’s just a standard. Tech companies are as good at destroying economic conditions as insurance companies. Not just Apple - they all do it and I don’t appreciate it nor understand the people who love Apple’s practices unless they’re also shareholders. Made plenty off Apple, but at the end of the day the world and customers deserve better. Imagine if the inventor of penicillin patented it and was the only one who could sell it forever.
I disagree. These things have all turned into glorified light switches and timers. They all do those jobs perfectly fine… except my Alexa. I have 1 office lamp, Alexa disagrees and tells me I have 2 and won’t do anything.
Anyway… yeah. They’re Demolition Man tools… illuminate.
I agree with, I thought the display should be on the top, big enough to display the name of the song, duration and other info, like time, timer, and other info that Siri could digest to a small screen.this way the globe design will give you a surround sound.