Apple's HomePod claims six percent of the smart speaker market, as Google closes gap with ...

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New data says that Apple is now the fourth smart speaker manufacturer as measured in sales worldwide with about 700,000 HomePods sold in the quarter, about six months after its launch.

Apple's white HomePod


According to the latest quarterly data on the smart speaker market from research firm Strategy Analytics, Amazon remains the top brand in smart speakers worldwide. But its lead is shrinking, as Google, Apple and others gain. SA found that Apple shipped around 700,000 speakers worldwide during the quarter, up from none the year before, indicating that Apple has found yet growth category.

The report finds that Amazon notched 4.8 million smart speaker shipments in Q2, placing its global market share at 41 percent. And while Amazon sold many more speakers in the rapidly growing category, competition has caused its market share to drop from 75.8 percent a year ago.

Google is second with 3.2 million speakers shipped for 27.6 percent, followed by Alibaba (about 800,000 shipments, and 7 percent) and Apple. Neither Alibaba, Apple, or the fifth-place brand, JD.com, registered on the survey during Q2 of last year.

"Apple has established an early lead in the premium smart speaker market, benefiting from a fiercely loyal fan base and strong momentum behind its Apple Music service," David Mercer, Vice President at Strategy Analytics, said as part of the report. "However, we expect the higher end smart speaker market to grow and become much more competitive moving forwards as vendors such as Samsung with its Galaxy Home speaker look to capitalize on the growing acceptance of voice as an established control mechanism."

Strategy Analytics smart speaker survey Q2


The HomePod debuted in February, and is competing with its rivals with a higher price point, and having launched much later than the speakers from Amazon or Google.

In May, another research firm, Canalys, had Google actually leading Amazon in global smart speaker market share for the first quarter, with Alibaba third. Apple at that time had not yet shown up in the survey.

A Consumer Intelligence Research Partners report earlier this month had Apple with a domestic install base of around 3 million, or also about 6 percent of the U.S. market.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 31
    Two audio products:
      AirPods        = huge success
      HomePods  = not (yet) a large success

    I don't mean this judgmentally, just as an observation.  And "success" is subjective; you could argue that HomePods have been very successful with their (a) target audience and (b) primary use case [audio quality].

    racerhomie3claire1watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 31
    crossladcrosslad Posts: 527member
    Only 700,000? Another $2.5bn failure by Apple /s
    tmayracerhomie3claire1jahbladebrucemcwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 31
    Apple released the HomePod with its software half baked.

    The numbers were impressive considering.

    The best thing about the HomePod is it will force Apple to get serious about Siri...
    jahbladeentropyschasmbrucemc
  • Reply 4 of 31
    These numbers are not all bad. This product will continue to grow momentum. The sound quality is outstanding at all volume levels. I would put it up against anything in its price range. Yes SIRI needs some work but it is still very useful.
    jahbladewatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 31
    nunzynunzy Posts: 662member
    Apple doesn't care about market share. If they could make higher profits by doing it, Apple would be happy to sell just to the 1%. Apple is like Tiffany or Ferrari.
    lbarry74racoleman29racerhomie3claire1jahblade
  • Reply 6 of 31
    nunzy said:
    Apple doesn't care about market share. If they could make higher profits by doing it, Apple would be happy to sell just to the 1%. Apple is like Tiffany or Ferrari.
    Great point. 
    nunzy
  • Reply 7 of 31
    zroger73zroger73 Posts: 787member
    These numbers are not all bad. This product will continue to grow momentum. The sound quality is outstanding at all volume levels. I would put it up against anything in its price range. Yes SIRI needs some work but it is still very useful.
    Agreed. I was so impressed by the design and sound quality of my first HomePod that I bought a second one.

    Unfortunately, the HomePods get to where they can't hear me over themselves sometimes - even at low volumes. I have to unplug and replug them to restore proper operation. I've had this issue since release and it's existed through all software updates.
    jeffreytgilbertclaire1techprod1gymarklark
  • Reply 8 of 31
    sirlance99sirlance99 Posts: 1,293member
    crosslad said:
    Only 700,000? Another $2.5bn failure by Apple /s
    Where did you get $2.5bn from? It’s $245 million in revenue max. Big difference. Doesn’t include discounts and employees half price incentives. So, it’s actually less. 
  • Reply 9 of 31
    mjtomlinmjtomlin Posts: 2,673member
    Can we drop the "Smart" crap already. The HomePod is the only speaker with any kind of intelligence - that is to say it can automatically determine the acoustics of a space and its position within it, and adjust itself accordingly. That to me is a SMART speaker.

    The other devices might as well be called smart microphones. They are basically just voice-controlled home assistants - the speaker is basically only for feedback.
    pscooter63StrangeDayshubbaxclaire1jahbladetechprod1gyzroger73equality72521watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 31
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    lbarry74 said:
    nunzy said:
    Apple doesn't care about market share. If they could make higher profits by doing it, Apple would be happy to sell just to the 1%. Apple is like Tiffany or Ferrari.
    Great point. 
    Ah so this is why Apple is still selling the gold Edition watch...oh wait....
    claire1nunzy
  • Reply 11 of 31
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member

    Apple released the HomePod with its software half baked.

    The numbers wer me impressive considering.

    The best thing about the HomePod is it will force Apple to get serious about Siri...
    Problem is when people have a not so great first experience it makes others more likely to wait (if they buy at all). I mean think of how many people don’t use Siri or Apple Maps because of bad experiences they’ve had. So even if the product improves these customers don’t know because they’ve stopped using the service.
    muthuk_vanalingamclaire1
  • Reply 12 of 31
    racerhomie3racerhomie3 Posts: 1,264member
    nunzy said:
    Apple doesn't care about market share. If they could make higher profits by doing it, Apple would be happy to sell just to the 1%. Apple is like Tiffany or Ferrari.
    Totally agreed. I like to think of them as a Porsche of the tech & fashion world.
    nunzy
  • Reply 13 of 31
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    mjtomlin said:
    Can we drop the "Smart" crap already. The HomePod is the only speaker with any kind of intelligence - that is to say it can automatically determine the acoustics of a space and its position within it, and adjust itself accordingly. That to me is a SMART speaker.

    The other devices might as well be called smart microphones. They are basically just voice-controlled home assistants - the speaker is basically only for feedback.
    There's still other Smart speakers then, meeting your criteria for one, and not just the HomePod. Similar price range too, tho very unlikely to see as much market success.
    edited August 2018 muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 14 of 31
    crossladcrosslad Posts: 527member
    crosslad said:
    Only 700,000? Another $2.5bn failure by Apple /s
    Where did you get $2.5bn from? It’s $245 million in revenue max. Big difference. Doesn’t include discounts and employees half price incentives. So, it’s actually less. 
    Your right. I got my decimal point in the wrong place. Still equivalent to a lot of $49 google home minis or amazon echo dots though. 
    gatorguywatto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 31
    davgregdavgreg Posts: 1,036member
    The HomePod is a dud.

    Repairing the thing out of warranty costs almost as much as buying a new one, which means it is another throwaway item from supposedly “green minded” Apple.
    It is tied to the low quality rebranded Beats streaming service and Apple’s inferior Siri technology. The device still looks like a roll of toilet paper in fishnet panty hose.

    Add to all that the simple fact that it sounds like a cheap boom box. I listened to it in 2 different Apple Stores and it sounded like a cheap Wal-Mart Boom Box from the 1980s.

    You can buy an Amazon Echo Dot and connect it to your existing equipment and get far better functionality and better sound for less money.

    Dud.
    claire1
  • Reply 16 of 31
    claire1claire1 Posts: 510unconfirmed, member
    nunzy said:
    Apple doesn't care about market share. If they could make higher profits by doing it, Apple would be happy to sell just to the 1%. Apple is like Tiffany or Ferrari.
    Good point but to think Apple wouldn't want 70% of the market with these profits is insane.
    nunzywatto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 31
    claire1claire1 Posts: 510unconfirmed, member

    davgreg said:
    The HomePod is a dud.

    Repairing the thing out of warranty costs almost as much as buying a new one, which means it is another throwaway item from supposedly “green minded” Apple.
    It is tied to the low quality rebranded Beats streaming service and Apple’s inferior Siri technology. The device still looks like a roll of toilet paper in fishnet panty hose.

    Add to all that the simple fact that it sounds like a cheap boom box. I listened to it in 2 different Apple Stores and it sounded like a cheap Wal-Mart Boom Box from the 1980s.

    You can buy an Amazon Echo Dot and connect it to your existing equipment and get far better functionality and better sound for less money.

    Dud.
    Not sure if sarcastic or stupid. You can't tell anymore, some people seriously repeat cliches.

    lbarry74 said:
    nunzy said:
    Apple doesn't care about market share. If they could make higher profits by doing it, Apple would be happy to sell just to the 1%. Apple is like Tiffany or Ferrari.
    Great point. 
    Ah so this is why Apple is still selling the gold Edition watch...oh wait....

    Discontinuing the Edition was one of the dumbest Apple moves in the past decade!
    zroger73equality72521watto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 31
    crosslad said:
    Only 700,000? Another $2.5bn failure by Apple /s
    It's not how much money Apple makes that matters. It's always about market share percentage and that's where Apple is always considered a failure. Wall Street would rather Amazon sell X? millions of Echo dots for $50 apiece than Apple selling 700,000 units for $350 apiece because market share is everything to investors. The news media enjoys making Apple look like a failing company although in reality it's quite the opposite.
  • Reply 19 of 31
    thrangthrang Posts: 1,007member
    We have five so far in the home, including a stereo pair in my office. Incredible sound... they are replacing Sonos AMPs room by room...
    equality72521claire1adamczroger73brucemcwatto_cobra
  • Reply 20 of 31
    mjtomlin said:
    Can we drop the "Smart" crap already. The HomePod is the only speaker with any kind of intelligence - that is to say it can automatically determine the acoustics of a space and its position within it, and adjust itself accordingly. That to me is a SMART speaker.

    The other devices might as well be called smart microphones. They are basically just voice-controlled home assistants - the speaker is basically only for feedback.
    There is intelligence in the listening, i.e. hearing what you say then deciphering it. And there is intelligence in the response, i.e. correctly responding to the question/request. I'm sure you could come up with some much more wordy description for these devices but I'm not sure why you'd bother. We all know that each device has different strengths - quality of the speaker, of the assistant, of the microphone, the price, the size, the mobility, but they are all in the same broader category - an audio input/output device with an assistant.
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