Apple employees can buy HomePod at half price for limited time
Apple employees are getting a late Christmas gift from the tech giant in the form of a 50 percent discount on the new HomePod speaker, which hits store shelves at $349 next week.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple workers can take advantage of the hefty price cut for a period of two months.
Apple previously extended deep product discounts to employees when Apple Watch first launched in 2015. At the time, the Calif., company offered an identical 50 percent savings on Apple Watch and Apple Watch Sport models, and $500 off the solid gold Edition series.
Beyond the two month timeframe reported by Gurman, details of the HomePod discount are not yet known. However, Apple will likely follow a plan similar to the Apple Watch incentive, which offered discounts at preorder.
HomePod went up for sale last Friday ahead of a scheduled launch date of Feb. 9. The at-home speaker features high-end audio components including multi-tweeter and microphone arrays, as well as advanced algorithms designed to deliver room-filling sound.
Like other smart speakers currently for sale by Amazon and Google, HomePod supports a virtual assistant in Apple's Siri alongside compatibility with connected home accessories via HomeKit.
Most recently, Apple this week confirmed audio support for its diminutive speaker, noting compatibility with first-party services like Apple Music, Beats 1, iTunes purchases and Match tracks, and podcasts.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple workers can take advantage of the hefty price cut for a period of two months.
Apple previously extended deep product discounts to employees when Apple Watch first launched in 2015. At the time, the Calif., company offered an identical 50 percent savings on Apple Watch and Apple Watch Sport models, and $500 off the solid gold Edition series.
Beyond the two month timeframe reported by Gurman, details of the HomePod discount are not yet known. However, Apple will likely follow a plan similar to the Apple Watch incentive, which offered discounts at preorder.
HomePod went up for sale last Friday ahead of a scheduled launch date of Feb. 9. The at-home speaker features high-end audio components including multi-tweeter and microphone arrays, as well as advanced algorithms designed to deliver room-filling sound.
Like other smart speakers currently for sale by Amazon and Google, HomePod supports a virtual assistant in Apple's Siri alongside compatibility with connected home accessories via HomeKit.
Most recently, Apple this week confirmed audio support for its diminutive speaker, noting compatibility with first-party services like Apple Music, Beats 1, iTunes purchases and Match tracks, and podcasts.
Comments
I’m looking forward to getting mine. I don’t want to run the AppleTV just to listen to music and I don’t have a speaker system anyway.
This morning I realized it would be next Friday.
I'm sad. Can't wait another week.
One of the earliest practitioners of this strategy in the electronics business was Polaroid Corporation (consumer-friendly instant cameras).
You can’t get decent stereo from a single device like that and the eye watering price for two makes me wonder who would do this when it’s so easy to have TWO standard high quality speakers connected to an amplifier with speaker cable. Some people in small apartments may struggle to find the space but anybody with a little space and a desire for high quality audio would surely find the space or wall mount the speakers?
I can understand many people want always-on Siri in the home but that offers no attraction for me. Siri is great but our family already has Siri on various iPhones and Apple Watches and the high cost of HomePod seems hard to justify compared to other options.
I’m sure the HomePod will sound OK. I tried a Google Home for a little while and the audio was “OK” but really not comparable even to a cheap HiFi system that costs less than a Google Home let alone an Home Pod.
Real audiophiles will stick with their high end amps and quality speakers. Don’t pretend this can in any way be comparable.
IDK the current state of audio amplifiers, speakers, etc.
In 1950 our family (I was 10 years old) moved from Minneapolis to Pasadena -- my dad and uncle created a company that made HiFi radios. They sounded pretty good!
I especially remember a (circa 1951 or 1952) maple, wall-mounted model that looked like a knick-knack shelf (about 3' wide, 3' high and 1' deep). It had some feature they called bass-crossover, and it filled the room with sound.
Sadly, the company failed and my dad had to get a regular job.
But, audio was in his blood -- and he kept making hifi, then stereo systems as a hobby. He would cobble together inexpensive instruments and parts from the war surplus store... He even built a table saw from an old motor so he could build speaker/amplifier/turntable cabinets.
Long story -- even longer...
I can remember him testing his radios using a Cathode Ray Ocilloscope -- I couldn't hear it, my dad couldn't hear it -- but my mom, in another room complained (and neighbor's dogs barked).
He would experiment, build a system -- then sell it for a profit... rinse and repeat.
Later, when I was out on my own, I'd stop by the Pasadena homestead and he would proudly show off his latest creation... new amplifier, crate-size folded-horn speakers, whatever.
The crowing glory, tho, was a system he built that made the made the bay window on the opposite side of the living room vibrate... he could make a wooden Japanese candy dish jump off their marble coffee table.
I guess you could say that sound is meant to be felt as well as heard!
I expect the HomePod to stay $350 for atleast 3 years. Then they will raise the price to $399 with the second model (like they raised the price of the watch and iPadPro).
I wish they had included an auxiliary in port like Google Max. I decided to buy a SONOS Play 5 because I need the aux-in. I wonder how many of Google Speaker partners felt screwed when Apple came out with the Google Max speaker (which seems to only be loud based on the review i've read). Talk about really screwing your partners. At least Amazon hasn't screwed over their Speaker Partners like SONOS.
I wonder what other audio gear Apple has on the way? I have to laugh at the way Apple's small niche divisions jointly rake in more profit than Google and Microsoft combined yet Wall Street thinks Apple is a one trick pony and a lame one at that.
HomePod isn't for audiophiles. That's too small of a market. Its for the millions of people who don't have a sound system in the iPod/iPhone era who have iPhones. Easily sell 3 million units ($1Billion) this quartet and 10 million for the year. I don't even expect a SoundBar in the next 3 years if Apple plans to do that.