Google Home Mini offers affordable voice assistant, music streaming for $49
Google on Wednesday unveiled a smaller, more affordable version of its Home speaker and assistant, dubbed the Google Home Mini, set to launch in stores on Oct. 19 for $49.
The goal of Google Home Mini is to make the Home platform more accessible to more people in more rooms.
Google focused Wednesday's presentation on the design and care put into the creation of Home Mini. For example, they said they tried 157 different shades of grey before finding the perfect color.
The Home Mini is almost entirely covered in cloth, and Google says the material itself was created from scratch, down to the yarn. It was designed to be durable and soft, but also transparent enough to let through light and sound.
The pebble-shaped speaker offers 360-degree, room filling sound, and at $49 is a direct competitor with Amazon's Echo Dot. It also significantly undercuts Apple's HomePod, which will launch this December for $349.
The Google Home Mini will launch on Oct. 17, but preorders for the diminutive device start today.
The goal of Google Home Mini is to make the Home platform more accessible to more people in more rooms.
Google focused Wednesday's presentation on the design and care put into the creation of Home Mini. For example, they said they tried 157 different shades of grey before finding the perfect color.
The Home Mini is almost entirely covered in cloth, and Google says the material itself was created from scratch, down to the yarn. It was designed to be durable and soft, but also transparent enough to let through light and sound.
The pebble-shaped speaker offers 360-degree, room filling sound, and at $49 is a direct competitor with Amazon's Echo Dot. It also significantly undercuts Apple's HomePod, which will launch this December for $349.
The Google Home Mini will launch on Oct. 17, but preorders for the diminutive device start today.
Comments
The Mac mini is an excellent device for light computing task in a constrained space. It now seems to be all but abandoned, with the message being "Use an iMac." The problem is that the iMac is too big and too expensive because it includes elements not required for the intended application.
Then there's the Apple TV. It's overkill for many use cases and is therefore considered "too expensive" for users with basic needs. Posters here have suggested that they would be more inclined to buy a more basic "stick" device, but Apple doesn't offer anything like that. Too "big" (box rather than dongle, requires its own power source) and too expensive because it includes elements not required for the intended application.
That's the way I fear the home assistant space at Apple is going to go. Requests for a small, basic, inexpensive interface will be met with "Use a HomePod." Objections that it is too big and too expensive because it includes elements not required for the intended application will go unanswered. Apple seems content to occupy the part of the product spectrum that includes big, fancy, expensive devices, but not more basic alternatives. That's fine, I'm not complaining, but it means that for the first time in a decade I'm giving some thought to whether I should be considering products outside the Apple ecosystem. You already have with Alexa and it seems to be working out well for you.
I'd sure love to be wrong though! Having egg on my face would, in this case, be welcome.
...but yeah, you're right. Depending on the application, decent sound quality may not matter at all. Even among those who would prefer something that sounds better, the $300 price difference may lead some to decide that a less capable device is "good enough," the same way they may choose a Kia rather than a BMW.