Daniel Eran Dilger for Roughly Drafted:
After an initial unveiling at WWDC17, Apple ultimately shipped HomePod early last year… Quite obviously, Apple wasn’t seeking to compete against $30 WiFi mics. HomePod is a high quality speaker that enhances the HomeKit ecosystem and makes hands-free Siri that much easier…
Critics declared HomePod dead on arrival from its first launch, with most focused on the price of the device compared to the cheapest of Alexa alternatives. Yet Apple’s initial sales volumes– about 4 million last year, according to Catalyst’s estimate– delivered revenues of around $1.4 billion. That’s more money than Amazon would have brought in from sales of 46 million Echo Dots, and its low end Alexa products are not nearly as profitable, if they make any money at all.
MacDailyNews Take: As always, it’s not unit share of the total market that Apple cares about, it’s share fo the premium end of the market – where customers of, say, speakers, have disposable income and the proven will to spend it on things like, say, subscription music services.