The move is towards voice assistance and Apple knows that.
Or ... the move could be towards higher quality audio.
Quotes like that are awesome though thanks, I filed it away to look at in ten years. I love reading the ones from the iPhone's early days too, not to mention Apple Watch.
Or both. No need to keep them apart.
A couple things you can bet on: Good audio is going to get a whole lot cheaper to acquire, and voice interaction ain't going away. Afterall how do you communicate with a salesperson at the checkout, or the waitress at your table, or the neighbor next door, or the friend sitting next to you. Of course you could grab your keyboard device and they could take out theirs too and you both could tippy-tap away to each other. You could.... but voice is faster and more natural.
Wow, I figured folks were generally happy with their Echos and Homes but I wouldn't have thought it would go as high as 90% considering many of them are those sub-$50 minis.
It's not quite 90% and only 30% are "very satisfied." The fact that 59% were just "satisfied" isn't very impressive to me. It's not surprising, but it's not impressive.
That person that always said that people only use Echos to buy toilet paper from Amazon should look at this results. Is that even 1 in 20 having bought anything with their device?
The answers are misleading in a way, if 50% use something and 50% use if for something else, asking 1 question a week and listening to music all day long will elicit this kind of answer.
What are the conjoint use? If there are a lot, and they'd have to be, most of those speakers would be used for barely anything seemingly!
Intensity of use is a better gauge. Intensity of use of one of the biggest distinction between Android users and IOS users, for a long while Android users barely used their browsers. With mid level phones being less horrible, this has had an uptic, yet they still use it a lot less than IOS users.
It's also pretty surprising that 60% of people with a speaker, a speaker for music... Don't use it as a speaker unless of course the sound is is so crappy you can't use it for that... hmm.. and then it makes perfect sense for the lower tier things. If you only spent $50 for parlor tricks, then I guess you would think it meets basic expectation for that price (probably would not be if you'd spent $300 for just that).
Notice there is barely a thing in there for the ubiquitous on tech sites of crappy speaker being used to drive a big ass stereo through home automation, something we hear those things are used all the time on Mac Rumors...
BTW, this comes from Loup, the same idiotic firm with the clickbait AI is a failure with a search list "study" from two weeks ago. So, everything coming out of them is pretty close to garbage.
Agreed. Based on my calculation from the chart, the sum of all the uses is just 147%. It appears that a significant number of users are using them for nothing. Based on the tech reviews, we'd expect the sum to be 300 or 400% with the average user using these things for music and home automation and weather and trivia. Instead, more than 60% aren't using it for music; more than 60% aren't using it for weather; more than 60% aren't using it for general information; 90% aren't using it for home automation...
That person that always said that people only use Echos to buy toilet paper from Amazon should look at this results. Is that even 1 in 20 having bought anything with their device?
The answers are misleading in a way, if 50% use something and 50% use if for something else, asking 1 question a week and listening to music all day long will elicit this kind of answer.
What are the conjoint use? If there are a lot, and they'd have to be, most of those speakers would be used for barely anything seemingly!
Intensity of use is a better gauge. Intensity of use of one of the biggest distinction between Android users and IOS users, for a long while Android users barely used their browsers. With mid level phones being less horrible, this has had an uptic, yet they still use it a lot less than IOS users.
It's also pretty surprising that 60% of people with a speaker, a speaker for music... Don't use it as a speaker unless of course the sound is is so crappy you can't use it for that... hmm.. and then it makes perfect sense for the lower tier things. If you only spent $50 for parlor tricks, then I guess you would think it meets basic expectation for that price (probably would not be if you'd spent $300 for just that).
Notice there is barely a thing in there for the ubiquitous on tech sites of crappy speaker being used to drive a big ass stereo through home automation, something we hear those things are used all the time on Mac Rumors...
BTW, this comes from Loup, the same idiotic firm with the clickbait AI is a failure with a search list "study" from two weeks ago. So, everything coming out of them is pretty close to garbage.
Agreed. Based on my calculation from the chart, the sum of all the uses is just 147%. It appears that a significant number of users are using them for nothing. Based on the tech reviews, we'd expect the sum to be 300 or 400% with the average user using these things for music and home automation and weather and trivia. Instead, more than 60% aren't using it for music; more than 60% aren't using it for weather; more than 60% aren't using it for general information; 90% aren't using it for home automation...
That person that always said that people only use Echos to buy toilet paper from Amazon should look at this results. Is that even 1 in 20 having bought anything with their device?
Yeah turns out they're doing even less with them by not even bothering to buy more junk on Amazon. Listening to music, #1 use case. So it confirms Apple's design priorities to build a great device for listening to music as the primary use case.
As myself and others have said, the majority of digital assistant stuff is gimmicky silliness -- ordering a pizza, hailing a ride, yada yada. Nope. Set some reminders, set timers, send some simple texts. HP meets these use cases and excels at music. That's a better product right there, which is why it's what's going in my house where the Echo and Google would never.
But hey, enjoy your easy access to TP refills. Beats using a wireless Amazon button for everything, right?
That person that always said that people only use Echos to buy toilet paper from Amazon should look at this results. Is that even 1 in 20 having bought anything with their device?
Yeah turns out they're doing even less with them by not even bothering to buy more junk on Amazon. Listening to music, #1 use case. So it confirms Apple's design priorities to build a great device for listening to music as the primary use case.
As myself and others have said, the majority of digital assistant stuff is gimmicky silliness -- ordering a pizza, hailing a ride, yada yada. Nope. Set some reminders, set timers, send some simple texts. HP meets these use cases and excels at music. That's a better product right there, which is why it's what's going in my house where the Echo and Google would never.
But hey, enjoy your easy access to TP refills.
Sure it's better for you. For millions of others it would not be, even considered not fit for purpose, so there's plenty of room in the marketplace for other good sounding smart-speakers with more capable voice assistants. None of the big three are in danger of being squeezed out of that market.
That person that always said that people only use Echos to buy toilet paper from Amazon should look at this results. Is that even 1 in 20 having bought anything with their device?
Yeah turns out they're doing even less with them by not even bothering to buy more junk on Amazon. Listening to music, #1 use case. So it confirms Apple's design priorities to build a great device for listening to music as the primary use case.
As myself and others have said, the majority of digital assistant stuff is gimmicky silliness -- ordering a pizza, hailing a ride, yada yada. Nope. Set some reminders, set timers, send some simple texts. HP meets these use cases and excels at music. That's a better product right there, which is why it's what's going in my house where the Echo and Google would never.
But hey, enjoy your easy access to TP refills. Beats using a wireless Amazon button for everything, right?
That person that always said that people only use Echos to buy toilet paper from Amazon should look at this results. Is that even 1 in 20 having bought anything with their device?
Yeah turns out they're doing even less with them by not even bothering to buy more junk on Amazon. Listening to music, #1 use case. So it confirms Apple's design priorities to build a great device for listening to music as the primary use case.
As myself and others have said, the majority of digital assistant stuff is gimmicky silliness -- ordering a pizza, hailing a ride, yada yada. Nope. Set some reminders, set timers, send some simple texts. HP meets these use cases and excels at music. That's a better product right there, which is why it's what's going in my house where the Echo and Google would never.
But hey, enjoy your easy access to TP refills. Beats using a wireless Amazon button for everything, right? [image]
Yikes! You better get some extra soft TP with aloe for all that butt hurt you're experiencing. So you missed the boat and now you're too embarrassed to admit that you made the wrong call. Don't dig in. The HomePod will improve in time and all these reasons you're invented as to why other sound systems don't sound better and that other digital personal assistances being more competent and useless are worthless features ("Nobody needs two timers" 🤣) will fade away and you'll be just like every anti-Apple/pro-Android person always saying sooooon. Get over it and move on.
That person that always said that people only use Echos to buy toilet paper from Amazon should look at this results. Is that even 1 in 20 having bought anything with their device?
Yeah turns out they're doing even less with them by not even bothering to buy more junk on Amazon. Listening to music, #1 use case. So it confirms Apple's design priorities to build a great device for listening to music as the primary use case.
As myself and others have said, the majority of digital assistant stuff is gimmicky silliness -- ordering a pizza, hailing a ride, yada yada. Nope. Set some reminders, set timers, send some simple texts. HP meets these use cases and excels at music. That's a better product right there, which is why it's what's going in my house where the Echo and Google would never.
But hey, enjoy your easy access to TP refills. Beats using a wireless Amazon button for everything, right? [image]
Yikes! You better get some extra soft TP with aloe for all that butt hurt you're experiencing. So you missed the boat and now you're too embarrassed to admit that you made the wrong call. Don't dig in. The HomePod will improve in time and all these reasons you're invented as to why other sound systems don't sound better and that other digital personal assistances being more competent and useless are worthless features ("Nobody needs two timers" ߤ㩠will fade away and you'll be just like every anti-Apple/pro-Android person always saying sooooon. Get over it and move on.
Utter nonsense. You clearly have a disorder — the need to always be right and never wrong. This is the best example yet.
I made no wrong choice — digital assistants are largely still bullshit, as shown by this data. They’re used to play music. Which is why Apple made the right choice to design a device that excels at music, plus offers the only remotely useful voice tasks — reminders, timers, home automation. IOW, stuff I use Siri for today.
Your fantasy use cases are irrelevant.
Echo is still 100% useless to me. Sorry chap, you’re still wrong and can’t ever change it. The pain!
For $30, I actually am very satisfied with my Google Home Mini. I mainly use it for kitchen timers and asking Google questions, and in that regard, it is much more useful than pulling out my iPhone and typing the inquiry into Google. I thought about the HomePod, but then I realized I never actually play music out loud in my home.
That person that always said that people only use Echos to buy toilet paper from Amazon should look at this results. Is that even 1 in 20 having bought anything with their device?
Yeah turns out they're doing even less with them by not even bothering to buy more junk on Amazon. Listening to music, #1 use case. So it confirms Apple's design priorities to build a great device for listening to music as the primary use case.
As myself and others have said, the majority of digital assistant stuff is gimmicky silliness -- ordering a pizza, hailing a ride, yada yada. Nope. Set some reminders, set timers, send some simple texts. HP meets these use cases and excels at music. That's a better product right there, which is why it's what's going in my house where the Echo and Google would never.
But hey, enjoy your easy access to TP refills.
Sure it's better for you. For millions of others it would not be, even considered not fit for purpose, so there's plenty of room in the marketplace for other good sounding smart-speakers with more capable voice assistants. None of the big three are in danger of being squeezed out of that market.
True. I never use Siri to play music. Entirely too unreliable. Rarely gets it right. But Siri is a master at setting reminders, and timers. That's probably 99% of my Siri use case, and having that ability built into a stationary device when my phone is not in the same room would be a great thing. Siri is also fantastic on the Apple TV where I use her the most, and not having to fish for the remote, and press a button to activate her would be great too! Still too early for me to jump on the HomePod bandwagon, or any of the others for that matter, but it would be must have functionality for me to even consider one.
Now if only they'd fix the latency issues with playing videos from my Mac to the HomePod I'd be 100% satisfied. Until then, I'm at the 50% point -- product isn't quite ready for prime time (and that's ignoring Siri; when Siri commands work on my iTunes playlist *WITHOUT* being an Apple music subscriber, I'll be happier still).
Now if only they'd fix the latency issues with playing videos from my Mac to the HomePod I'd be 100% satisfied. Until then, I'm at the 50% point -- product isn't quite ready for prime time (and that's ignoring Siri; when Siri commands work on my iTunes playlist *WITHOUT* being an Apple music subscriber, I'll be happier still).
I doubt that will ever happen. If Apple wanted that to be a feature, it would have been one already. HomePod is an Apple Music accessory. They want people to buy a HomePod AND subscribe to Apple Music. I expect the Apple Music features to get better and better, but I think they’ve done all they are going to do when it comes to supporting competing services and personal libraries: AirPlay.
Seems Apple knows precisely where to place its bets. The voice interaction paradigm will take some time to adopt, requiring human-like conversation capabilities on the part of device/ecosystem, and none are there yet. For now, smart speakers are being adopted for music listening and a few voice-enabled conveniences. And because they easily (wirelessly) connect to our gadgets. So Apple designs a top-tier audio experience with excellent listening capabilities (even in a noisy environment) and gives it sufficient smarts to be ready for the voice-assistant future. Hmm, bull’s eye again, Apple. Well done.
This is the key. So many reviewers focused on what the HomePod wasn't capable of doing vs. the competition, rather than focusing one what consumers actually use the device for. I own an Echo Dot and HomePod. As far as how I use the devices, there hasn't been a thing I use (other than the Jeopardy skill) on the dot that I haven't been able to use on the HomePod. The HomePod focused on providing high quality features on what smart speakers are primarily used for, instead of focusing on providing as many features as possible regardless of the user experience. Alexa can order items from Amazon, but having used it; it shouldn't. It's not an easier or more convenient method. I found myself needing to go online, look up the Alexa deals of the day, then need to look exactly how to phrase the command to get the deal of the day. It was a pain and took far more time than just going onto Amazon on my phone or computer.
Comments
A couple things you can bet on: Good audio is going to get a whole lot cheaper to acquire, and voice interaction ain't going away. Afterall how do you communicate with a salesperson at the checkout, or the waitress at your table, or the neighbor next door, or the friend sitting next to you. Of course you could grab your keyboard device and they could take out theirs too and you both could tippy-tap away to each other. You could....
but voice is faster and more natural.
File that to look at in 10 years too.
As myself and others have said, the majority of digital assistant stuff is gimmicky silliness -- ordering a pizza, hailing a ride, yada yada. Nope. Set some reminders, set timers, send some simple texts. HP meets these use cases and excels at music. That's a better product right there, which is why it's what's going in my house where the Echo and Google would never.
But hey, enjoy your easy access to TP refills. Beats using a wireless Amazon button for everything, right?
I made no wrong choice — digital assistants are largely still bullshit, as shown by this data. They’re used to play music. Which is why Apple made the right choice to design a device that excels at music, plus offers the only remotely useful voice tasks — reminders, timers, home automation. IOW, stuff I use Siri for today.
Your fantasy use cases are irrelevant.
Echo is still 100% useless to me. Sorry chap, you’re still wrong and can’t ever change it. The pain!