“Apple’s HomePod is set to arrive sometime in ‘early 2018’ after missing its promised December ship date,” Zac Hall writes for 9to5Mac. “Based on Apple’s definition of ‘early’ in the year, we can expect HomePod to go on sale any day between now and the end of April.”
“Combine the delay with new competitors and the challenge is only amplified: lower prices, wider compatibility, and a late entry to the market will make the $349 Siri-enabled speaker a tougher sell for Apple without a refocused pitch,” Hall writes. “HomePod was initially pitched as a home speaker with both premium audio output for playing Apple Music and access to Siri for smart assistant needs — all in a single device for the first time… [But, now] you can combine any Sonos speaker with any Amazon Echo product for hi-fi music playback controlled by voice though. For example, you can buy the $249 Sonos Play:3 and the $50 Amazon Echo Dot and have the very product Apple showed on stage in June for $50 less than the price of HomePod.”
“Want a more premium audio experience than HomePod even promises to offer? Sonos Play:5, a $500 wireless speaker, paired with an Amazon Echo Dot is probably your best solution; Apple doesn’t yet offer a smart speaker that promises to compete with the Play:5’s audio quality,” Hall writes. “Apple can refresh its messaging without changing what HomePod does. Dropping the price before actually shipping wouldn’t hurt. $349 to $329 or $299 wouldn’t make a huge difference to consumers, but it might send the message that Apple gets we’re not in June 2017 anymore and there are compelling options with more appealing prices on the market today. Even without touching the price, there are ways Apple could pitch HomePod that make it more compelling than a smart speaker that rocks the house…”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple had a lot of work to do if they wanted HomePod to be successful last year. They have a lot more work to do now.
Tick-tock, Apple. Real artists ship.
SEE ALSO:
Apple CEO Tim Cook paid close to $102 million for fiscal 2017 – December 28, 2017
Apple’s Phil Schiller: We feel bad about the HomePod delay – December 8, 2017
Echo Dot was Amazon’s Black Friday – Cyber Monday bestseller as Apple’s delayed HomePod waits for 2018 release date – November 28, 2017
Apple’s late, delayed, limited HomePod is looking more and more like something I don’t want – November 27, 2017
Why Apple’s HomePod is three years behind Amazon’s Echo – November 21, 2017
Under ‘operations genius’ Tim Cook, product delays and other problems are no longer unusual for Apple – November 20, 2017
Apple delays HomePod release to early 2018 – November 17, 2017
Apple CEO Tim Cook: The ‘operations genius’ who never has enough products to sell at launch – October 23, 2017
Apple reveals HomePod smart home music speaker – June 5, 2017
Apple’s desperate Mac Pro damage control message hints at a confused, divided company – April 6, 2017
Apple is misplaying the hand Steve Jobs left them – November 30, 2016
Apple delays AirPod rollout – October 26, 2016
Apple delays release of watchOS 2 due to bug – September 16, 2015
Apple delays HomeKit launch until autumn – May 14, 2015
Apple delays production of 12.9-inch ‘iPad Pro’ in face of overwhelming iPhone 6/Plus demand – October 9, 2014
Tim Cook’s mea culpa: iMac launch should have been postponed – April 24, 2013
Yeah yeah, they said the same about netbooks remember? And smart watches. The iPhone was too late to the game to have an impact, the iPod would never compete at that price point…..
No one would buy MacBook Pros with Touchbars at that outrageous price, Apple “urgently” needs to release a touchscreen MacBook, the iPad Pro was ridiculously expensive…..
Touch Bar? What’s a Touch Bar?
However many millions of these speakers have shipped will be absolutely DWARFED by the number of speakers Apple ships in the first month of availability. By the end of this year, the market share distribution will be defined as a percentage of Apple’s sales. That’s just how it goes. There’s a lot of people with money that are looking for a solution like the one Apple promises (AirPlay 2, for example) and are just waiting to see when it goes on sale.
Have some more kool aid and come back a year from now. Assuming Apple is transparent enough to tell is what Other sales are. I predict only a fraction of lo-fo AM subscribers will waste their $ on Apple HiFi V2.0. Everyone who wants to waste time attempting to get information from Siri can do so today with the gadget in their pocket.
Anyone who values music already has vastly superior stereo systems.
Netbooks went nowhere. Google later introduced their cheap laptops that is just a way of collecting data on users. Apple invented the consumer smart phone that we know today. Smartwatches was a gimmick Apple builds the best laptops in the game..
Apple’s is embarrassing itself day by day.
Only to you mr fred
Apple is, or Apples are? Either way you just embarrassed yourself.
Am I the only person who sees no use for this device?
Don’t be silly there are always people who think they have no use for a device. There are some who happily see a horse and cart as perfectly viable for their needs over a car for example. And for some a rowing boat is preferable to a motor yacht. So yes I am sure there are some who would agree with you, it just isn’t remotely important.
Maybe Apple had made that same realization and that’s the reason Home Pod is nonexistent.
HomePod is going in my bedroom to replace my alarm clock/digital radio/charging dock
DONE SHIP TILL ITS RIGHT MDN – come on!
you have no idea what or why they delayed this homepod…
Why? Who knows? Who’s not telling? The sad, pathetic saga of Apple and Home Pod is just another example of Apple’s lack of leadership.
When they don’t go wholeheartedly for something then sadly too often this is what you get with them. Must be tough for a company their size to be able to focus on more than one thing at a time.
It’s not shipping because Siri sucks and Apple Knows it to be so. Alexa is hands-down tenfold better
Both are worthless. They are obvious attempts to herd people into narrower walled gardens. The lazy sheep bow their unthinking little heads and follow these huge profiteering corporations down the path to subscription computing.
damned shame, they woulda sold a shitload of ’em over Christmas.
Also in the shame department is the likelihood that Apple deliberately pre-announced HomePod hoping to freeze sales of competing products like Amazon Echo — one of the oldest tricks in the book. It is also likely that they knew the product, a completely new manufacture, might slip its shipping schedule and miss Xmas yet they did it anyway. Plus one for Tim the Grinch.
but Pipeline didn’t freeze sales of the competition, he accelerated them.
• missed sales are always a minus.
• not delivering a promised product is always a minus.
• intentionally deceiving your customers over battery life is always a minus.