People who are buying a basic Bluetooth speaker on Amazon, or who are looking for the novelty of Alexa, are not Apple's target audience of HomePod.
The entire point of the article was that when iPod arrived, it was compared against MP3 sticks, clunky hard drives and CD Players. The people who wanted those things didn't rush out to pay 2-4X for an iPod. The people who wanted a cool new luxury audio device paid $399 for it. It took 3-4 years before Apple dominated the market.
At that point, there were still cheapskates insisting that they got a smashing deal on a $100 MP3 player, and there were people who paraded around a Zune. We don't remember them today because they don't matter. We remember that iPod was a phenomenon, and Apple made tons of money from it, and became a content titan. And that funded iPhone.
With iPod it was an opportunity given by the small form factor hard drive that let them build a box the size of a packet of playing cards that could hold 1,000 songs (and more, in my experience)
What has HomePod got stashed away in there, hardware or software, that was previously not possible? Apple’s last attempt at innovative speaker technology- the Apple HiFi- was clever but did not become a hit.
Have you seen how many people have Apple’s white ear buds sticking out of their ears? Sorry but most people don’t care that much about sound quality.
I care about sound quality, but I'm content with earbuds on my 60GB iPod while I wash dishes or take a brief stroll because I have a fancypants stereo to enjoy the majority of the time.
Google and Amazon place trojan horses within your environment.
Google is only about disseminating our private data to advertisers in exchange for their ad dollars. No matter what the project they take on, if it doesn't fulfill that primordial ambition, it doesn't happen or it gets canned rapidly.
Amazon is slightly different, but its Alexa product is not a pure play home electronics product. It's a circuitous gambit that is part of another, greater strategy.
Apple's speaker will fill your room with sound first and foremost. Its partaking of your single Apple I.D. and its hooks into Apple's walled garden are nice bonuses. But the customers have been warned to expect a kickbutt speaker, which Alexa and Assistant are not, and do not aspire to be.
PS: “cheapskate bargain buyers and techno-troglodytes” is quite a mouthful for the more succinct “tech guys.”
I'd consider myself a "tech guy" who is also willing to pay more for well-designed and easy-to-use products which aren't funded by data harvesting for advertising. There is a difference.
LOL...Echo is "good enough"? Have these guys actually looked at the speaker design of the Echo? It has one tweeter and one woofer, and the sound just escapes via the holes in the cylinder. It's not actually being directed anywhere.
Have you seen how many people have Apple’s white ear buds sticking out of their ears? Sorry but most people don’t care that much about sound quality.
Two points:
1. Mobile sound isn't the same as home sound. Apple's ear buds are comparable to similar sized mobile sound devices. Sure you could get much larger, studio-quality headphones if you're really into sound. But most people are willing to trade sound quality for convenience and portability when they're on-the-go. 2. Most people eat at fast food restaurants too. It doesn't mean there isn't a market for well prepared food.
As a side note, Home may be an Echo knock off but Assistant, which is essentially a refurbished Now, was around long before Alexa. Now was even on iOS before Alexa was launched.
The issue wasn't who was first, but who was successful and who fumbled.
Perhaps we have different definitions of what a knock off is
The HomePod acoustic hardware is not just better than the cheaply made Amazon and Google products. It has technologies that are only found at the very high end of the audiophile market.
For example, HomePod has 360 degree beam forming tweeters. Compare this to the $6,300 BeoLab 20 - can it beam-form? No, it has what B&O call ALT (Advanced Acoustic Lens), how does ALT work? Ever cupped your hand around the speaker on your phone to direct the sound toward you? That is exactly what the BeoLab 20 has, a cup on the top that directs the sound to cover 180 degrees of the room. They market this extremely low tech feature as the speaker’s “crowning glory”. Nether-the-less B&O do have a speaker that can like HomePod beam-form over 360 degrees, it is the BeoLab 90. How much is a BeoLab 90? $35,000.
The cheaper smart speakers from Google and Amazon don’t even have dedicated woofers. Not only does HomePod have a dedicated woofer but this 4 inch woofer has a 20mm excursion - something completely unheard of in the home speaker market! Apple has a microphone behind the driver that precisely measures the pressure changes so that the woofer can be dynamically adjusted to eliminate distortion - presumably using a proprietary technique described in a patent that was published last year.
Basically, HomePod contains technologies that rival very expensive audiophile products. This is also evidence in the fact that HomePod has a dedicated amp for each driver - another mark of high end products.
Considering the technology it contains, the low price of HomePod is astonishing.
OK, you piqued my interest technically. I had to find out more about this "smart speaker" as I didn't know about the tech inside. I found this article very helpful:
"...the technology outlined in Apple’s patent is capable of intelligently
and continuously adapting in real-time — rather than being calibrated
every time."
I'm especially interested in how the internal microphones affect the speaker signals (what type of feedback is being used to correct the distortion). The article didn't go into that detail.
But no, let pretend it's Apple that "in trouble" because it supposedly can't sell premium products in a market saturated for years in cheap alternatives, when that's the only thing Apple has done for 40 years.
LOL...Echo is "good enough"? Have these guys actually looked at the speaker design of the Echo? It has one tweeter and one woofer, and the sound just escapes via the holes in the cylinder. It's not actually being directed anywhere.
Have you seen how many people have Apple’s white ear buds sticking out of their ears? Sorry but most people don’t care that much about sound quality.
I think there’s a context difference between what’s free in the box, and somebody shopping for a shelf speaker that they presumably want to sound good.
Unsurprisingly, another very nice fully fleshed out article from DED.
I'm a little less harsh about Amazon and its Echo/Alexa products, not sure I'd classify them as surveillance devices. Okay, perhaps "customer data acquisition" devices. I do think that the primary purpose of Alexa and the metrics that Amazon uses to consider its value are things like attachment and purchasing frequency. In other words how correlated is a customer's use of Alexa to subsequent purchases of Amazon services like music and audiobooks and how does the use of Alexa change the average order invoice total and order frequency on Amazon.com? I believe Amazon ultimately aggregates everything up into a bottomline customer lifetime value (CLV) metric against which all business decisions are outcomes at Amazon are measured. From Amazon's perspective Alexa has to move the (aggregated) CLV needle upward or it will be discontinued. I have no doubt that the Echo products and Alexa are moving the needle.
But that's Amazon's game and it's not the same game that Apple is playing. Apple obviously cares about CLV but I believe that it's more biased towards customer loyalty and retention rather than projected dollars and cents. It's not a subtle difference either. Apple isn't trying to inspire you to buy more k-cups, lightbulbs, or microSD cards just to get a cut of the action. Apple is trying to keep you in their ecosystem by constantly improving the value of being in their ecosystem. Devices like Apple TV and HomePod ratchet up the customer value of being in the Apple ecosystem, not only by providing new features and capabilities, but by providing new outlets and touch points for enjoying the investments customers already have made in the Apple ecosystem. For me at least, having my collections of music, videos, apps, ebooks, photos, personal content, and iCloud collateral that was acquired via various generations of iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Macs instantly available on my Apple TVs reminds me that I made an excellent investment in Apple. Those of us who lived through generations of recording media captive content, e.g., LPs, 8-track, cassette tape, CDs/DVDs, etc., remember what it was like to be left behind time and again. With Apple's ecosystem those days are over.
Finally, the HomePod throws a crazy new twist into the ecosystem equation. It's not merely an outlet (speaker) for media consumption. It's also an input, control, and orchestration device that over time will be one of the primary and most natural interaction edge devices for accessing your own personal flavor of the rich Apple ecosystem from anywhere in your home. Perhaps it will someday delegate tasks to other intelligent agents, like Alexa. After all, listening to your favorite music with a nice cup of coffee in hand is rather nice.
On this one, I believe Daniel is entirely wrong. I'll stick my neck out and say: it' is a silly analogy. The HomePod will do fine, e.g., sell a couple-of-ten millions, but it will not achieve anything close to the sales, leave alone the iconic impact of, the iPod. There is already an established market for these devices, and the two leading companies in this market are no slouches. Moreover, they've already defined the basic rules of the game. I do not see any major additional functionality that the HP brings. I agree that the design is beautiful, and I have no doubt that the sound quality is better.
If I am proven wrong, I'll be one happy shareholder, but unfortunately this'll be an also-ran product in Apple's menu of hardware offerings. In fact, even if it does about as well as AppleTV in terms of sales, I'll eat my words.
While you may well be right, you’ve offered no reasons for being right. All of the reasons given similarly existed for the other Apple product successes — established market, other big first movers. These haven’t proven barriers to Apple so I think more reasons are needed to make the claim.
Nice context. My hope is that HomePod pushes Siri, or more exactly an ambient general-purpose assistant that most humans can recognize as being best in class— that is, a superior experience for living as a happy healthy citizen. Possible? Who knows? It’s interesting that Google and Apple are each moderating in some degree. Apple touting data collection in latest iOS 11 system preferences, along with iAds button default on. And Google stating its users can turn off ad stalking, ban certain ads, and no longer reading internals of gmails. My point is that in the future we’ll all still value serendipity, new learning or expertly culled opportunities for deals or experiences. In that case will tips from great personal assistants be so different from brilliantly targeted ads? Maybe not. So things like process, transparency, and security become key.
I have been reading quite a few articles on the HomePod...I haven't seen anyone talk about whether it can be used as a speaker for my AppleTV. I would seriously consider buying one to get great sound for music, Siri, HomeKit support and immersive sound for my TV...
If someone has played with the beta software and can advise, that would be great!
For me personally, interest in the HomePod will depend all but entirely on how well AirPlay 2 implementation works. If it’s easy to incorporate a HomePod into my preexisting home WiFi audio system (i.e., multiple rooms of Sonos speakers and Connects), the HomePod specs have me intrigued enough that I might well buy. If not, then very likely not.
Hopefully AirPlay 2 will be out and working smoothly soon so that we can try this stuff out.
I have been reading quite a few articles on the HomePod...I haven't seen anyone talk about whether it can be used as a speaker for my AppleTV. I would seriously consider buying one to get great sound for music, Siri, HomeKit support and immersive sound for my TV...
If someone has played with the beta software and can advise, that would be great!
As an AirPlay endpoint, yes, it can be your output speaker(s) for an ATV.
I like the italicized "Apple makes products to delights its users." This cannot be over emphasized. If Apple delivers on HomePod in this respect, we have a winner. However, my only input on the issue is just that: will it? Tech in general is a highly personal choice, and will its users value what this device offers? Will many people value the better sound?
The comments about security and spying by google and alexa are probably not generally applicable. I think most consumers (particularly in the US) do not know about or care about this. This feature is probably not a big driver for most.
I won't be buying one, but hope many do. I do also expect to see further competition (like the recent Sonos price cut.) Competition is good. And perhaps soon a bundle: get a AM subscription with a HomePod. But of course, as the article rightfully points out, HomePod (like iPod before it) is intended to drive subscription sales.
I detest subscriptions of any kind. And I have abandoned Siri. It is on 6 devices in my household, and I might use it as much as a few dozen times a year. Its only usefulness is in the car with Carplay. Maybe the HomePod deployment would change that...if I really valued a lot of music in my home.
I have been reading quite a few articles on the HomePod...I haven't seen anyone talk about whether it can be used as a speaker for my AppleTV. I would seriously consider buying one to get great sound for music, Siri, HomeKit support and immersive sound for my TV...
If someone has played with the beta software and can advise, that would be great!
As an AirPlay endpoint, yes, it can be your output speaker(s) for an ATV.
Comments
Google and Amazon place trojan horses within your environment.
Google is only about disseminating our private data to advertisers in exchange for their ad dollars. No matter what the project they take on, if it doesn't fulfill that primordial ambition, it doesn't happen or it gets canned rapidly.
Amazon is slightly different, but its Alexa product is not a pure play home electronics product. It's a circuitous gambit that is part of another, greater strategy.
Apple's speaker will fill your room with sound first and foremost. Its partaking of your single Apple I.D. and its hooks into Apple's walled garden are nice bonuses. But the customers have been warned to expect a kickbutt speaker, which Alexa and Assistant are not, and do not aspire to be.
Two points:
1. Mobile sound isn't the same as home sound. Apple's ear buds are comparable to similar sized mobile sound devices. Sure you could get much larger, studio-quality headphones if you're really into sound. But most people are willing to trade sound quality for convenience and portability when they're on-the-go.
2. Most people eat at fast food restaurants too. It doesn't mean there isn't a market for well prepared food.
https://www.idropnews.com/news/latest-apple-patent-explains-makes-homepod-special/44343/
From the article:
"...the technology outlined in Apple’s patent is capable of intelligently and continuously adapting in real-time — rather than being calibrated every time."
I'm especially interested in how the internal microphones affect the speaker signals (what type of feedback is being used to correct the distortion). The article didn't go into that detail.
The patent seems to be here:
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2017/09/one-of-apples-detailed-homepod-patents-may-have-surfaced-today-at-the-us-patent-office.html
I wouldn't be surprised if more patents are forthcoming. Thanks for the info.
To cite customers claim it’s good enough reminds me of the supposed Ford quote on his customers wanting a faster horse.
I think there’s a context difference between what’s free in the box, and somebody shopping for a shelf speaker that they presumably want to sound good.
I'm a little less harsh about Amazon and its Echo/Alexa products, not sure I'd classify them as surveillance devices. Okay, perhaps "customer data acquisition" devices. I do think that the primary purpose of Alexa and the metrics that Amazon uses to consider its value are things like attachment and purchasing frequency. In other words how correlated is a customer's use of Alexa to subsequent purchases of Amazon services like music and audiobooks and how does the use of Alexa change the average order invoice total and order frequency on Amazon.com? I believe Amazon ultimately aggregates everything up into a bottomline customer lifetime value (CLV) metric against which all business decisions are outcomes at Amazon are measured. From Amazon's perspective Alexa has to move the (aggregated) CLV needle upward or it will be discontinued. I have no doubt that the Echo products and Alexa are moving the needle.
But that's Amazon's game and it's not the same game that Apple is playing. Apple obviously cares about CLV but I believe that it's more biased towards customer loyalty and retention rather than projected dollars and cents. It's not a subtle difference either. Apple isn't trying to inspire you to buy more k-cups, lightbulbs, or microSD cards just to get a cut of the action. Apple is trying to keep you in their ecosystem by constantly improving the value of being in their ecosystem. Devices like Apple TV and HomePod ratchet up the customer value of being in the Apple ecosystem, not only by providing new features and capabilities, but by providing new outlets and touch points for enjoying the investments customers already have made in the Apple ecosystem. For me at least, having my collections of music, videos, apps, ebooks, photos, personal content, and iCloud collateral that was acquired via various generations of iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Macs instantly available on my Apple TVs reminds me that I made an excellent investment in Apple. Those of us who lived through generations of recording media captive content, e.g., LPs, 8-track, cassette tape, CDs/DVDs, etc., remember what it was like to be left behind time and again. With Apple's ecosystem those days are over.
Finally, the HomePod throws a crazy new twist into the ecosystem equation. It's not merely an outlet (speaker) for media consumption. It's also an input, control, and orchestration device that over time will be one of the primary and most natural interaction edge devices for accessing your own personal flavor of the rich Apple ecosystem from anywhere in your home. Perhaps it will someday delegate tasks to other intelligent agents, like Alexa. After all, listening to your favorite music with a nice cup of coffee in hand is rather nice.
While you may well be right, you’ve offered no reasons for being right. All of the reasons given similarly existed for the other Apple product successes — established market, other big first movers. These haven’t proven barriers to Apple so I think more reasons are needed to make the claim.
Nice context. My hope is that HomePod pushes Siri, or more exactly an ambient general-purpose assistant that most humans can recognize as being best in class— that is, a superior experience for living as a happy healthy citizen. Possible? Who knows? It’s interesting that Google and Apple are each moderating in some degree. Apple touting data collection in latest iOS 11 system preferences, along with iAds button default on. And Google stating its users can turn off ad stalking, ban certain ads, and no longer reading internals of gmails. My point is that in the future we’ll all still value serendipity, new learning or expertly culled opportunities for deals or experiences. In that case will tips from great personal assistants be so different from brilliantly targeted ads? Maybe not. So things like process, transparency, and security become key.
If someone has played with the beta software and can advise, that would be great!
Hopefully AirPlay 2 will be out and working smoothly soon so that we can try this stuff out.
I like the italicized "Apple makes products to delights its users." This cannot be over emphasized. If Apple delivers on HomePod in this respect, we have a winner. However, my only input on the issue is just that: will it? Tech in general is a highly personal choice, and will its users value what this device offers? Will many people value the better sound?
The comments about security and spying by google and alexa are probably not generally applicable. I think most consumers (particularly in the US) do not know about or care about this. This feature is probably not a big driver for most.
I won't be buying one, but hope many do. I do also expect to see further competition (like the recent Sonos price cut.) Competition is good. And perhaps soon a bundle: get a AM subscription with a HomePod. But of course, as the article rightfully points out, HomePod (like iPod before it) is intended to drive subscription sales.
I detest subscriptions of any kind. And I have abandoned Siri. It is on 6 devices in my household, and I might use it as much as a few dozen times a year. Its only usefulness is in the car with Carplay. Maybe the HomePod deployment would change that...if I really valued a lot of music in my home.
Profit!