HomePod What's taking so long for HomePod v2?

[ApplesandOranges]

Lack of sales of v1 I suppose.

And then again, what would you want of a second version, other than lower price and more colors?

But it would be in Apple's best interests to offer a v2. Apple fans always overlook the lack of innovation but happily pay more for a "new version".
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You mean how like in 2017 Apple cut orders of the iPhone X by 20% and by the end of its first calendar year it was the best selling consumer electronics product of all time driving Apple stock to the highest level in its history? Ming-Chi Kuo is as wrong as often as he is right and is nothing more than clickbait for the WSJ crowd.

You don't need to worry about how Apple leverages its factories into ordering more materials and being ready to ship if they have an unexpected surge in demand. That's a business practice that is very common, retailers do it all the time, they over-order so their high-side forecasts are covered and then cancel if they come in at their baseline forecast. You can't sell what your factories haven't built. So you jack up the orders to ensure they build 'em and then you cancel them if you don't need them. For all you know Apple beat its HomePod forecast by 10% or 20% regardless of whether or not factories received cancellations. You don't know their actual forecast. You have a datapoint from a disgruntled factory worker, nothing more.

"Shabikua fabrication factory said Apple cut orders on speaker grilles and a store manager said he had 20 in the back room and only sold 10 so that means that HomePod is a turd."

Let the businessmen talk about business, thanks.

Apple fans will always support Apple (As their sales numbers have demonstrated) and will continue to buy their products regardless of recalls, lawsuits, or defects. I often wonder if Apple customers are buying the product or the name. They then come here and argue endlessly about how great the turd is they just bought.

 

[LiveM]

Hey. So I’m really interested in where you got that 60% figure from? We don’t need to dance around here, we both know that you just totally made that up (or got it from a source that made it up). And there is nothing I hate more than people that bandy around stats that are total bull.

I’m not saying that HomePod has been a raging success. I just can’t countenance fantasists.

Here’s one for you; the ones I have seen previously are paywalled.

https://www.cultofmac.com/543249/homepod-orders-cut-in-half/

 

[Solomani]

Why would a HOMEpod need a battery?

I could see it having only a "backup battery" in case of brief power grid failure. Many alarm clocks and even home security hubs already have backup batteries. Hmm doesn't HomePod already have this?

 

[danny842003]

Here’s one for you; the ones I have seen previously are paywalled.

https://www.cultofmac.com/543249/homepod-orders-cut-in-half/

But there’s nothing to say that wasn’t a planned cut. Devices won’t run at the same production throughout their lives.
I’m not saying the HomePod hasn’t been disappointing but you’re quoting figures to prove a point and you have no idea what these figures relate to.

 

[steve62388]

Here’s one for you; the ones I have seen previously are paywalled.

https://www.cultofmac.com/543249/homepod-orders-cut-in-half/

Yep. Just like I said.

Oh. And what @danny842003 said too.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

But it would be in Apple's best interests to offer a v2. Apple fans always overlook the lack of innovation but happily pay more for a "new version".

True that, but I am still curious what people would want in a rev. 2.

 

[Itinj24]

I personally have no need for an upgraded full version 2 but I would like to see a mini version that’s more affordable. I can’t justify spending 300/ea for five or more of them throughout my house but I would sprinkle my house with a bunch of mini HomePods for voice home automation, taking phone calls and light music listening. For example, my garage. Entering my home with a bunch of groceries in hand (yes I always attempt to do it in one trip lol) and to be able to have Siri close the garage doors through voice when I can’t get to my phone or even lift my wrist with my Apple Watch. Bathrooms would be another use case.

 

[maflynn]

People are not really buying version 1, I don't see any motivation for a version 2.

Apple lost the smart speaker/ home automation battle

 

[ApplesandOranges]

They came to the market late, and then charged more than everyone else. Their claim that they do it better didn’t stick. Even the fanboys here claiming the speaker was audiophile quality were ignored. Just not true.

 

[ZeitGeist]

Why would a HOMEpod need to be wirlesss though?

It wouldn’t. Wanting a wireless HomePod is pretty much a ridiculous request. All it would do is kickstart threads bemoaning the terrible battery life, and it would only add a significant point of failure.

What HomePod can benefit from is making it waterproof, at least enough for permanent outdoors deployment. Now THAT would be a feature that would bring in new and more sales.

 

[ZeitGeist]

Dude, you really need to up your market knowledge. Go find some competing products and info about HomePod sales.

Maybe you need to arrive at the heart wrenching realization that you are not Apple’s target market, AND that you don’t appear to understand much about product development.

 

[ZeitGeist]

Clearly you believe you know everything there is to know about HomePod and it’s sales. Clearly everyone else, therefore, is wasting their time. And finally, clearly, this is boring and I’m out.

Yep, basically pointless to continue. I agree.

 

[ZeitGeist]

You mean how like in 2017 Apple cut orders of the iPhone X by 20% and by the end of its first calendar year it was the best selling consumer electronics product of all time driving Apple stock to the highest level in its history?

No, it wasn’t. The iPhone X was the reason why Apple stopped reporting unit sales, and without unit sales numbers, your claims are just guesses on your part.

What we do know is that Apple cut production of the iPhone X by 20%, since their upgrade sales to the iPhone X dropped by that much, and that quarter’s unit sales and profits were largely carried by iPhone 8 and iPhone 7 sales - a trend that continued into the next year, with the XR barely helping out.

We also do know that Apple just recently paid Samsung a $600+ million penalty for cancelled sales of OLED screens - OLED screens are only used in iPhone X, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max. This translates to roughly 40% in sales that didn’t happen, if you extrapolate all the numbers.

So, no, the iPhone X never was the best selling consumer product of all time, as you claim - but your statement does prove that Apple PR does a marvelous job of spinning their numbers, and confusing people that can’t do math. For that alone, Apple should be congratulated.

 

[ZeitGeist]

Apple fans will always support Apple (As their sales numbers have demonstrated) and will continue to buy their products regardless of recalls, lawsuits, or defects. I often wonder if Apple customers are buying the product or the name. They then come here and argue endlessly about how great the turd is they just bought.

While there is a certain demographic if loyal Apple customers, your claim doesn’t correlate with the fact that Apple keeps adding more NEW customers quarter after quarter, and quite a lot of them.

I assume those are just fake shills being paid off by ‘Big Apple’ to make their numbers look good?

 

[ZeitGeist]

People are not really buying version 1, I don't see any motivation for a version 2.

Apple lost the smart speaker/ home automation battle

I would agree with, while adding “... for now”.

Apple did what they usually do - enter the market with a high-end, premium priced product. Subsequently, if they are smart and follow prior strategic paths (much more likely, now that Jony Ive has been fired), they will diversify the HomePod line into a newer product (mostly ‘newer’ and manufactured in a less expensive manner), as well as a lower cost, smaller product.

The key was establishing the HomePod brand name, and then leverage that with subsequent products.

As for the home automation market - I entirely agree with you there. Instead of wasting $3 billion on a useless boat anchor like Beats, they should have bought Nest and Ring, instead of letting them be gobbled up by Amazon and Google (and they should also have bought Waze) ... but I digress.

 

[LiveM]

Maybe you need to arrive at the heart wrenching realization that you are not Apple’s target market, AND that you don’t appear to understand much about product development.

Me? Oh, yes, I most definitely am. As with the rest of the 95% of the target market, I declined to buy the HomePod and purchased other brands. I will continue to wait until the fixes come, which they will.

 

[boltjames]

Apple fans will always support Apple (As their sales numbers have demonstrated) and will continue to buy their products regardless of recalls, lawsuits, or defects. I often wonder if Apple customers are buying the product or the name. They then come here and argue endlessly about how great the turd is they just bought.

I'm not an Apple fan. I'm just a fan of a quality product. If you enjoyed your Android as much as you pretend to you wouldn't be here picking fights with happy rich people.
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No, it wasn’t. The iPhone X was the reason why Apple stopped reporting unit sales, and without unit sales numbers, your claims are just guesses on your part.

Units don't pay the bills. Revenue does. If I recall correctly, iPhone X generated more single-year revenue than any smartphone in history.
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People are not really buying version 1, I don't see any motivation for a version 2.

Apple lost the smart speaker/ home automation battle

Apple wasn't trying to win the smart speaker 'battle' with a $300 product. The typical smart speaker is half the price. Google Mini is $50. Apple, as they almost always do, released a high quality product at a high price for the luxury consumer.

If Apple were to come out with a second version I would appreciate one that is larger and more expensive. A kitchen or a bathroom is perfect for the HomePod, but I want a jumbo version for my great room.

 

[ApplesandOranges]

I'm not an Apple fan. I'm just a fan of a quality product. If you enjoyed your Android as much as you pretend to you wouldn't be here picking fights with happy rich people.
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Units don't pay the bills. Revenue does. If I recall correctly, iPhone X generated more single-year revenue than any smartphone in history.
[doublepost=1566856590][/doublepost]

Apple wasn't trying to win the smart speaker 'battle' with a $300 product. The typical smart speaker is half the price. Google Mini is $50. Apple, as they almost always do, released a high quality product at a high price for the luxury consumer.

If Apple were to come out with a second version I would appreciate one that is larger and more expensive. A kitchen or a bathroom is perfect for the HomePod, but I want a jumbo version for my great room.

Never owned an Android phone. Have had every iPhone since first gen. Also, I did not know I was picking fights with rich people. It's hard to tell for sure on this site. Besides, I've spent enough time here to know there is a lot of smoke and mirrors. The elitist talk follows soon after. Wealth not needed.

Kind of like all these people with 6 figure incomes and FICO scores over 850 clamoring for a credit card. Call me a bit skeptical. I've never seen so many well off people congregate in one place. So I guess you are right, it hard to throw a rock and not hit a rich person around here...

Funny thing is people throw money around thinking they are getting quality and prestige. As far as the HomePod is concerned, I have spent enough time with audiophile gear to consider myself a snob. (Cant do that and be poor)

The HomePod is not audiophile quality or even the best choice.

 

[boltjames]

Never owned an Android phone. Have had every iPhone since first gen. Also, I did not know I was picking fights with rich people. It's hard to tell for sure on this site. Besides, I've spent enough time here to know there is a lot of smoke and mirrors. The elitist talk follows soon after. Wealth not needed.

Kind of like all these people with 6 figure incomes and FICO scores over 850 clamoring for a credit card. Call me a bit skeptical. I've never seen so many well off people congregate in one place. So I guess you are right, it hard to throw a rock and not hit a rich person around here...

Funny thing is people throw money around thinking they are getting quality and prestige. As far as the HomePod is concerned, I have spent enough time with audiophile gear to consider myself a snob. (Cant do that and be poor)

The HomePod is not audiophile quality or even the best choice.

For someone with 20,000 songs ripped, purchased, and organized into hundreds of perfectly curated playlists in iTunes along with an Apple Music subscription, the HomePod is the best choice. I have several of them, along with multiple Apple TV's and I've got my whole primary house and my whole beach house set up just wonderfully. "Hey Siri, play some fun beach tunes" and 10 hours later my party guests are still marveling how all the songs that come on are fun and different and not a dud in the bunch.

As for the audiophile nonsense, I went down that path for over 25 years, and guess what, it's so much better when you kick all that oversized self-important gear to the curb and simplify. HomePod is supremely convenient and it turns out that convenience trumps sound quality. You can have a few percents of distortion and a few decibels of midrange, have at it. I have HomePod's sprinkled everywhere and I've got 45 million songs just a few sentences away.

 

[ApplesandOranges]

For someone with 20,000 songs ripped, purchased, and organized into hundreds of perfectly curated playlists in iTunes along with an Apple Music subscription, the HomePod is the best choice. I have several of them, along with multiple Apple TV's and I've got my whole primary house and my whole beach house set up just wonderfully. "Hey Siri, play some fun beach tunes" and 10 hours later my party guests are still marveling how all the songs that come on are fun and different and not a dud in the bunch.

As for the audiophile nonsense, I went down that path for over 25 years, and guess what, it's so much better when you kick all that oversized self-important gear to the curb and simplify. HomePod is supremely convenient and it turns out that convenience trumps sound quality. You can have a few percents of distortion and a few decibels of midrange, have at it. I have HomePod's sprinkled everywhere and I've got 45 million songs just a few sentences away.

My 10,000 ripped, purchased, and perfectly organized songs work just fine with Sonos.

I've read some of your posts. Beach house, Trophy wife, seven figure income... classic. Do you listen to Yacht Rock radio on XM satellite radio through you multiple HomePods? Or do you just talk like the announcer?

The highlighted comment says a lot about your alleged "audiophile" heritage. Thanks for the entertainment.

 

[boltjames]

My 10,000 ripped, purchased, and perfectly organized songs work just fine with Sonos.

I've read some of your posts. Beach house, Trophy wife, seven figure income... classic. Do you listen to Yacht Rock radio on XM satellite radio through you multiple HomePods? Or do you just talk like the announcer?

The highlighted comment says a lot about your alleged "audiophile" heritage. Thanks for the entertainment.

Yacht Rock Radio plays on XM Radio in my luxury cars all Summer. For the estates, it's Steely Dan and Michael McDonald on the HomePod's.

If you need money, just PM me. No need to be uncouth.

 

[ApplesandOranges]

Yacht Rock Radio plays on XM Radio in my luxury cars all Summer. For the estates, it's Steely Dan and Michael McDonald on the HomePod's.

If you need money, just PM me. No need to be uncouth.

Which part of my response was uncouth? I appreciate the humor but have no reason to borrow Money. No idea what made you think that I was in need. Impulse response perhaps?

Continue with the persona it's really great. No disrespect, it's very entertaining.

 

[cynics]

But it would be in Apple's best interests to offer a v2. Apple fans always overlook the lack of innovation but happily pay more for a "new version".
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Apple fans will always support Apple (As their sales numbers have demonstrated) and will continue to buy their products regardless of recalls, lawsuits, or defects. I often wonder if Apple customers are buying the product or the name. They then come here and argue endlessly about how great the turd is they just bought.

You are feeding into your on narrative (or rhetoric) or something, thats very confusing. Are you speaking for Apple fans?

I think you have it backwards though. Apple fans can appreciate the subtle innovations that Apple integrates into existing products. These are things that usually go unnoticed by the laymen who generally just wants change for the sake of change. There are a ton of smartphone manufacturers that throw ideas at the wall to see what sticks all day long just to drop support for that idea/feature 6 months later.

The type of innovation I'm speaking of are things like the A12 using a 7nm process. 5k screens with incredible color accuracy. These are things Apple is having the competition build for them. Apple is having the manufacturers/competitors that specialize at making specific products make better products than they offer.

The color accuracy does illustrate how some people are easily manipulated by "bright things". Cranking the saturation is what TV manufacturers do to sell TV's in stores (demo mode).

How about actually having your own OS? There are a lot of features I really like with Android. There are features I really like with Android OEMs skins. But in the end I would have to root and rom the device so I could essentially build my own OS. That is a cool feature in and of itself however its a tedious process that isn't supported and very limited.

Is creating a new method of aluminum recycling not innovative? Their motives are clear, reduce overhead and waste (aka $$$). Sure it may help the environment but its unlikely that was their main goal. And obviously they hired and worked with the smart people that created this process. Regardless that doesn't distract from the fact they reinvented aluminum recycling.

What about creating 4 different OS's (TvOS, iOS, WatchOS, MacOS) that all use a file system specifically invented and designed for todays hardware and software (APFS)? Thats got to be mildly innovative no?

Cloud services that extend directly to the cellular providers for 1st party support so you can use devices that aren't phones as phones (sms, iMessage, phone calls) over wifi without the need iPhone.



They have a firm stance (waning in recent times) on how the market is going to and will force the issue if there is something better. And like clockwork the industry follows suit. I'm referring to things like, no headphone jack. ApplePay. PCIe flash storage in computers. Thunderbolt. HEVC transcoding, HEVC 60 fps recording etc...

Apple has always used Thunderbolt (an intel technology) due to its superior bandwidth and versatility. Finally with Thunderbolt 3 they forced the market. People complain about dongles but I think those people are forgetting they need a cable to begin with, don't get a dongle and HDMI cord get a TB3 to HDMI cord....duh. Or you can use a dongle if you want or another option. Admittedly its a slight irritation at first worth it in the end. I have one cable I plug in at work and it charges my laptop, connects to ethernet lan, connects to a second display and gives me 3 USB-A ports on my desk. Of course now all high end laptops come with TB3.

To get the best headphone sound quality out of a smart phone you really need very low impedance headphones. No one did that. They would get an overpriced 'one size fits none' pair, and compromise on quality everywhere. All manufacturers followed Apples lead and dropped the headphone jack. Again people complain about the dongle, when they should just get a lightning to 3.5mm cord. If it doesn't unplug from the headphones themself I really question how night they actually are.....(hint they are a junk).

ApplePay is my main method of paying for stuff. Again the competition followed, creatively Samsung came up with "Samsung Pay"....then their was Android Pay which I believe is now Google Pay.

PCIe flash was a necessary evil with 4k video editting. For YEARS people were upset about the price and refused to understand the benefits of NVMe over SATA and how it applied to them. I understand peoples confusion, the 2014 Macbook Pro was using PCIe PCI 2 (2 lane) flash storage, 2015 was using PCI 3.0 (4 lane) flash storage. It was crazy expensive.

The iPhone 8 was able to recording in 4k 60fps HEVC and then (still does) transcode the video to h264 for compatibility to devices that didn't have native HEVC decoding. At the time the iPhone 8 was released I believe Sony had the cheapest DSLR that recorded HEVC 4k 60fps and it cost 3000 dollars. Admittedly I'm sure it was better at it but that tech was well ahead of the competition (Samsung Note at the time could do HEVC 4k 30fps and didn't have intelligent transcoding for compatibility, at least at the time).

I'm clearly rambling and I'm not trying to imply "Apple is the best" because thats subjective and if competitor X does more things that you need and does it better well then technically that is a better product for you. I'm also not trying to discount other companies innovation like, for example the Pixel 1 or 2 not sure which saw Apples bokeh photo mode and did an amazing job making their own, and did it with a single lens which...hats off to them...impressive to say the least. But Apple isn't just sitting around on their hands either.