Steve Jobs said it best when he canceled all speaker products....everyone else does it better, and does it for less, so we are leaving this space. The only speakers that Apple sold that sounded good were the Pro speakers and iSub made by Harman Kardon. Why? Because Apple didn't make them.
People who mock the HomePod obviously never had a pair.
Wrong. People heard them. Agreed they were far too boomy and no way to adjust tone control. And they weren't dumb enough to spend $349 for a heavily restricted speaker, let alone two for $700. You could buy a full home theater surround set up for about the same price or less, sound a million times better, and listen to anything you want on it. Sorry you got ripped off. I am sure it will be a cute AirPlay speaker in a few months since it uses a CPU that Apple stopped supporting over two years ago, and was three years outdated when they created the HomePod.
So Apple is sacrificing quality of sound for a smaller size and a lower price. For me, when it comes to music, quality trumps all else.
Now that is funny. Here is a guy that claims quality trumps all else, yet he buys a HomePod with no tone controls and listens to heavily compressed Apple Music at 256Kbps. Sorry, you have no idea what good sound quality is. I bet you think Bluetooth music sounds good too. Apple killed it because it was overpriced, heavily restricted, and no one bought it. It never sold out, ever, even on day one. One great thing about Steve Jobs is that he admitted their mistakes, and killed off products quickly that consumers didn't want. Tim Cook leaves them around for years hoping someone might buy one or two.
Remember when HomePod first came out and Apple said, "You are placing it wrong" and suggested not to place it on wood furniture because it will damage the surface and leave a ring. Even Apple's support document said if you don't want HomePod to leave a ring, don't put it on wood surfaces.
Hi Homepod, this is iPod Hi-Fi! Welcome to the discontinued overpriced garbage club!
It was a stupid product when it was new, it never improved, the price never dropped to anything even remotely close to reasonable, Apple discontinued it.
Why would anybody be surprised? It was a failure from minute 1.
What an idiotic post.
The vast, vast majority of reviews proclaimed the sound quality to be incredible, and the price was actially resonable when compared to other speakers in its class with the same quality. It's not "garbage" , and Im not sure what universe the price "isn't even remotely close to reasonable". The fucking Google speaker is the same price. Apple discontinued it because it because it wasn't selling at the levels of Apple's other products (ie. astronomically high). Doesn't mean it was a "garbage" or "stupid" product.
I'm curious why you have such passionate hate towards it? What did it do to you? Pretty much everyone who cared about good sound quality and was in the Apple ecosystem loved it. Your post just sounds like a tired troll. Funny how you have to go back like 2 decades to find another discontinued product to pretend there's some kind of pattern.
Actually your response was idiotic and represents a niche that is slowly in decline. That niche is the group of people that buy whatever Apple offers up no matter how ill conceived or overpriced, it is.
The product was garbage on day one and I really think the rest of the world said that on day one! consider:
1. Grossly over priced for what it is.
2. It is a 24/7 spying device that you willingly place in your home.
3. It doesn't work well if at all with other stuff in your home.
4. To get stereo operation you need to buy another grossly over priced device.
This isn't trolling or hate so get your head screwed on straight! Rather it is a rational evaluation of a consumer product based on experience with consumer products over several decades. It always amazes me how sheep respond with accusations of hate or trolling when presented with rational thoughts on a product. Home Pods are a gigantic rip off and a massive security risk, no rational person would have purchased them.
Yeah, I can’t say I’m totally surprised. Like the article said, there was nothing wrong with the technology or sound quality - the reviews were pretty much unanimous that both were excellent. Apple just came late to the smart speaker market and out priced itself.
Now, imagine if instead of spending $300 on a smart speaker you just spent $70,000 on a car...
If the Mythical Apple car comes out it will be over 100,000.00. It too will be a failure.
Hi Homepod, this is iPod Hi-Fi! Welcome to the discontinued overpriced garbage club!
It was a stupid product when it was new, it never improved, the price never dropped to anything even remotely close to reasonable, Apple discontinued it.
Why would anybody be surprised? It was a failure from minute 1.
What an idiotic post.
The vast, vast majority of reviews proclaimed the sound quality to be incredible, and the price was actially resonable when compared to other speakers in its class with the same quality. It's not "garbage" , and Im not sure what universe the price "isn't even remotely close to reasonable". The fucking Google speaker is the same price. Apple discontinued it because it because it wasn't selling at the levels of Apple's other products (ie. astronomically high). Doesn't mean it was a "garbage" or "stupid" product.
I'm curious why you have such passionate hate towards it? What did it do to you? Pretty much everyone who cared about good sound quality and was in the Apple ecosystem loved it. Your post just sounds like a tired troll. Funny how you have to go back like 2 decades to find another discontinued product to pretend there's some kind of pattern.
Bloggers and journalists are paid to say that, when in reality the sound quality was far too boomy and no way to adjust it. A bunch of clueless millennials that have no idea what good speakers sound like. Apple is so arrogant that they do not even include bass or treble controls in the software. Anyone buying a speaker under that premise is an idiot. The price was excessive compared to other speakers that offered a ton more features, let you listen to whatever you want, and control the quality of the sound. It was garbage. Siri is garbage. It ran on a four year old processor that Apple stopped using three years earlier. Apple dropped it because it was a sales disaster. Retailers could not blow them out for $199. It was never out of stock, even on day one of release. Sorry, but people that care about sound quality, do not listen to heavily compressed Apple Music at 256Kbps. His comparison to the iPod Hi-Fi is dead on accurate. Apple claimed how great it was for the iPod, yet the remote did not even allow you to choose what music you wanted to listen to. All you could do with the remote was play, pause, volume, and skip. The HomePod was heavily restricted. No bluetooth, no audio in, no audio out, Apple Music only, no stereo sound for six months, no way to control the sound quality, and you had to use other devices if you wanted to hear anything other than Apple Music. Sorry you don't seem to get it, but the HomePod was a joke, just like the iPod Hi-Fi. But I guess you are cool because you have to use the F word in your comment.
Yeah no, Apple does not pay bloggers or reviewers. Get fucking real.
The sound was good, and I’m not a millennial. We even did blind A:B tests with a popular sound bar and the dual HPs won.
Hi Homepod, this is iPod Hi-Fi! Welcome to the discontinued overpriced garbage club!
It was a stupid product when it was new, it never improved, the price never dropped to anything even remotely close to reasonable, Apple discontinued it.
Why would anybody be surprised? It was a failure from minute 1.
What an idiotic post.
The vast, vast majority of reviews proclaimed the sound quality to be incredible, and the price was actially resonable when compared to other speakers in its class with the same quality. It's not "garbage" , and Im not sure what universe the price "isn't even remotely close to reasonable". The fucking Google speaker is the same price. Apple discontinued it because it because it wasn't selling at the levels of Apple's other products (ie. astronomically high). Doesn't mean it was a "garbage" or "stupid" product.
I'm curious why you have such passionate hate towards it? What did it do to you? Pretty much everyone who cared about good sound quality and was in the Apple ecosystem loved it. Your post just sounds like a tired troll. Funny how you have to go back like 2 decades to find another discontinued product to pretend there's some kind of pattern.
Bloggers and journalists are paid to say that, when in reality the sound quality was far too boomy and no way to adjust it. A bunch of clueless millennials that have no idea what good speakers sound like. Apple is so arrogant that they do not even include bass or treble controls in the software. Anyone buying a speaker under that premise is an idiot. The price was excessive compared to other speakers that offered a ton more features, let you listen to whatever you want, and control the quality of the sound. It was garbage. Siri is garbage. It ran on a four year old processor that Apple stopped using three years earlier. Apple dropped it because it was a sales disaster. Retailers could not blow them out for $199. It was never out of stock, even on day one of release. Sorry, but people that care about sound quality, do not listen to heavily compressed Apple Music at 256Kbps. His comparison to the iPod Hi-Fi is dead on accurate. Apple claimed how great it was for the iPod, yet the remote did not even allow you to choose what music you wanted to listen to. All you could do with the remote was play, pause, volume, and skip. The HomePod was heavily restricted. No bluetooth, no audio in, no audio out, Apple Music only, no stereo sound for six months, no way to control the sound quality, and you had to use other devices if you wanted to hear anything other than Apple Music. Sorry you don't seem to get it, but the HomePod was a joke, just like the iPod Hi-Fi. But I guess you are cool because you have to use the F word in your comment.
I really wanted to buy 2 or 3 of these. I was waiting until they became available in Ireland, but which weren’t yet due to.......Siri specifics, presumably. ߤ簟ﻦzwj;♂️
Myself and a few others were considering driving the 2hrs to buy them in Belfast. Where they work because it’s UK. ߤ氟ﻦzwj;♂️ߤ簟ﻦzwj;♂️ߤ簟ﻦzwj;♂️ߤ簟ﻦzwj;♂️
It felt to me like an untapped market just yet to mature.
Wait - isn’t Apple based in Ireland???
It’s “based” in Cupertino, California, but its EU business operations are in Cork.
That swooshing sound you hear above your head is humor.
Hi Homepod, this is iPod Hi-Fi! Welcome to the discontinued overpriced garbage club!
It was a stupid product when it was new, it never improved, the price never dropped to anything even remotely close to reasonable, Apple discontinued it.
Why would anybody be surprised? It was a failure from minute 1.
What an idiotic post.
The vast, vast majority of reviews proclaimed the sound quality to be incredible, and the price was actially resonable when compared to other speakers in its class with the same quality. It's not "garbage" , and Im not sure what universe the price "isn't even remotely close to reasonable". The fucking Google speaker is the same price. Apple discontinued it because it because it wasn't selling at the levels of Apple's other products (ie. astronomically high). Doesn't mean it was a "garbage" or "stupid" product.
I'm curious why you have such passionate hate towards it? What did it do to you? Pretty much everyone who cared about good sound quality and was in the Apple ecosystem loved it. Your post just sounds like a tired troll. Funny how you have to go back like 2 decades to find another discontinued product to pretend there's some kind of pattern.
Bloggers and journalists are paid to say that, when in reality the sound quality was far too boomy and no way to adjust it. A bunch of clueless millennials that have no idea what good speakers sound like. Apple is so arrogant that they do not even include bass or treble controls in the software. Anyone buying a speaker under that premise is an idiot. The price was excessive compared to other speakers that offered a ton more features, let you listen to whatever you want, and control the quality of the sound. It was garbage. Siri is garbage. It ran on a four year old processor that Apple stopped using three years earlier. Apple dropped it because it was a sales disaster. Retailers could not blow them out for $199. It was never out of stock, even on day one of release. Sorry, but people that care about sound quality, do not listen to heavily compressed Apple Music at 256Kbps. His comparison to the iPod Hi-Fi is dead on accurate. Apple claimed how great it was for the iPod, yet the remote did not even allow you to choose what music you wanted to listen to. All you could do with the remote was play, pause, volume, and skip. The HomePod was heavily restricted. No bluetooth, no audio in, no audio out, Apple Music only, no stereo sound for six months, no way to control the sound quality, and you had to use other devices if you wanted to hear anything other than Apple Music. Sorry you don't seem to get it, but the HomePod was a joke, just like the iPod Hi-Fi. But I guess you are cool because you have to use the F word in your comment.
Bloggers and journalists are paid to say that... Bloggers and journalists (two entirely different things btw) are paid to blog and to write. On the other hand you may have proof that they are being paid by said companies, so we'll wait for you to present it.
A bunch of clueless millennials. Another blanket statement to denigrate someone who doesn't always agree with you. Who are you talking about? MKBHD? The Yuryev brothers at MaxTech?
...bass or treble controls Yes and when people had them (back in the 70's and 80's) on their hardware most left them on the 0 setting (ie default). Even on the software side, late 90's and early 2000's, very few ever adjusted. But I'm certain you can take and unbiased random sample of people right here on this forum who represent a fraction of a percent of the overall Apple buying public and you can find up 50% who actually care about those things.
other speakers that offered a ton more features But you never list this ton more features. Or are they just gimmicks? "Hey Alexa, read out my calendar for me".
Sorry, but people that care about sound quality, do not listen to heavily compressed Apple Music at 256Kbps. Tired old statement meant to denigrate anyone who doesn't appreciate or cannot afford to spend on equipment in the thousands of dollars to get that perceived extra clarity from their 96 KHz/24 bit masters. Please point us to a true ABX study where a truly random sample of people can actually hear the difference.
Apple Music Only....and you had to use other devices if you wanted to hear anything other than Apple Music That's news to many of us who can actually stream various different sources from our iPhones straight to the HomePod but before you shifted the goalposts, you are right it does not natively support Amazon music, Spotify, Pandora etc. A mount Everest for you to climb but a very minor inconvenience for so many of the rest of us.
Glad to see that awful, overpriced thing go away. I said day one it was going to flop and it did.
In the Apple Store it sounded like a cheap boombox and certainly not worth the asking price. Then the dust and stain magnet fishnet outer finish. Even worse, the thing os pretty much unrepairable. And out of warranty repair started at close to the asking price.
That it flopped is not a surprise, what was a surprise is who signed off on it in the first place. A simple Dot like device that could be plugged in to an existing home system that sounds many times better would have made more sense. My Focals on their worst day sound better than the HomePod could ever aspire to.
Glad to see that awful, overpriced thing go away. I said day one it was going to flop and it did.
In the Apple Store it sounded like a cheap boombox and certainly not worth the asking price. Then the dust and stain magnet fishnet outer finish. Even worse, the thing os pretty much unrepairable. And out of warranty repair started at close to the asking price.
That it flopped is not a surprise, what was a surprise is who signed off on it in the first place. A simple Dot like device that could be plugged in to an existing home system that sounds many times better would have made more sense. My Focals on their worst day sound better than the HomePod could ever aspire to.
And how has that "awful, overpriced thing" that you never bought, changed your life?
In your 2nd paragraph you insinuate that only the HomePod attracts dust. News to every HomePod owner out there that see their divice attracting 2x, 3x, 4x .... more dust than comparable Sonos, Samsung, Amazon products...... Oh wait. other products attract dust too?
Your 3rd paragraph is laughable to say the least. Echo dots can just be dropped anywhere in your home and any of them sound better than the HomePod? I assume that the laws of physics do not apply in your household where number of internal speakers and size do not matter. But then to make your above point, you compare it to your Focals (which I had to look up btw). So your Focal $1599 soundbar sounds better than a HomePod. Or maybe you meant this set of Focal Dôme Flax Pack 5.1 for $3990. Either way I'm glad you cleared that up for us.
Glad to see that awful, overpriced thing go away. I said day one it was going to flop and it did.
In the Apple Store it sounded like a cheap boombox and certainly not worth the asking price. Then the dust and stain magnet fishnet outer finish. Even worse, the thing os pretty much unrepairable. And out of warranty repair started at close to the asking price.
That it flopped is not a surprise, what was a surprise is who signed off on it in the first place. A simple Dot like device that could be plugged in to an existing home system that sounds many times better would have made more sense. My Focals on their worst day sound better than the HomePod could ever aspire to.
And how has that "awful, overpriced thing" that you never bought, changed your life?
In your 2nd paragraph you insinuate that only the HomePod attracts dust. News to every HomePod owner out there that see their divice attracting 2x, 3x, 4x .... more dust than comparable Sonos, Samsung, Amazon products...... Oh wait. other products attract dust too?
Your 3rd paragraph is laughable to say the least. Echo dots can just be dropped anywhere in your home and any of them sound better than the HomePod? I assume that the laws of physics do not apply in your household where number of internal speakers and size do not matter. But then to make your above point, you compare it to your Focals (which I had to look up btw). So your Focal $1599 soundbar sounds better than a HomePod. Or maybe you meant this set of Focal Dôme Flax Pack 5.1 for $3990. Either way I'm glad you cleared that up for us.
Focals start out under $300 for a pair, so they aren't all high-priced. At the same time the OP is being far too dramatic. I think he might be trolling us.
As far as “Fixing Siri” goes , isn’t this some kind of anniversary for Siri being introduced? WWDC or September would be the perfect time to give Siri a real big boost to celebrate. Or, as Renee Richie says, Siri OS.
My Focals on their worst day sound better than the HomePod could ever aspire to.
Your 3rd paragraph is laughable to say the least. Echo dots can just be dropped anywhere in your home and any of them sound better than the HomePod? I assume that the laws of physics do not apply in your household where number of internal speakers and size do not matter. But then to make your above point, you compare it to your Focals (which I had to look up btw). So your Focal $1599 soundbar sounds better than a HomePod. Or maybe you meant this set of Focal Dôme Flax Pack 5.1 for $3990. Either way I'm glad you cleared that up for us.
Focals start out under $300 for a pair, so they aren't all high-priced. At the same time the OP is being far too dramatic. I think he might be trolling us.
Focal's passive speakers need a sound-source and a receiver to power them - adding cost and wiring challenges. HomePods are Active speakers with built-in sound source, power and decoding . I don't think Focal even makes Active speakers.
The best two Focal speakers can do is Stereo, because they have just one Tweeter and Midrange/Woofer driver in each enclosure. In contrast, the HomePod has multiple tweeters and an A* processor, allowing a stereo pair to simulate Dolby Atmos very well.
In reality, there is no comparison between high-end speakers and the HomePod. Entirely different products built for entirely different use-cases.
My Focals on their worst day sound better than the HomePod could ever aspire to.
Your 3rd paragraph is laughable to say the least. Echo dots can just be dropped anywhere in your home and any of them sound better than the HomePod? I assume that the laws of physics do not apply in your household where number of internal speakers and size do not matter. But then to make your above point, you compare it to your Focals (which I had to look up btw). So your Focal $1599 soundbar sounds better than a HomePod. Or maybe you meant this set of Focal Dôme Flax Pack 5.1 for $3990. Either way I'm glad you cleared that up for us.
Focals start out under $300 for a pair, so they aren't all high-priced. At the same time the OP is being far too dramatic. I think he might be trolling us.
Focal's passive speakers need a sound-source and a receiver to power them - adding cost and wiring challenges. HomePods are Active speakers with built-in sound source, power and decoding . I don't think Focal even makes Active speakers
Did you try doing a search for "Focal active speakers"? Apparently you did not.
Still doesn't change my opinion that the OP was trolling us.
Amusing how many people here derided those that criticised the HP and Siri, and now Apple has abandoned it after just a couple of years. I see they’re still desperately defending this decision and attacking those who criticise Apple.
Like many of Apple’s things introduced as the Next Best Thing, they get bored of it and it gets strung along and eventually dumped. The HP hasn’t really improved since release, Siri has got worse. IMO the high price along with the Airplay/Apple Music lock in killed it. There’s no reason they couldn’t have at least added BT audio to make it more compatible.
Even using Siri is a headache, the most basic requests like asking it to play music often falters, more complex (reminders/alarms/information) requests flat out fail or returns a totally wrong result more often than not. It’s embarrassingly crap and the kind of experience we’d ridicule - and expect from Microsoft, not Apple.
As I’ve said before, Cook’s Apple is looking more and more like Gil Amelio’s mid-90’s Apple: lock-in, incompatibility and propitiatory hardware. It’s not a good path to be on.
Not a huge surprise. I just came across this story a few minutes ago, coincidently after having been listening to my HomePod since early this morning. The good news is that it seems like a solidly engineered and constructed product so hopefully it will last several more years and continue to deliver a great listening experience.
Sloughing off products that aren't hitting their targets or gaining marketshare is an inevitable fact of life for profitable businesses. You have to free up resources and focus for the next round of products that will get their opportunity to run the race and thrive. Survival of the fittest.
As much as I hate to say it, I'm thinking the axe blade may be swinging in the direction of Apple TV next. It's a great product, but it's stuck in a tweener hole (sucker hole?) between low cost streamers and gaming consoles. I've bought a few Apple TV 4Ks because they are super easy to setup and have been very reliable for me. Yeah, the price is definitely higher than it probably should be for what it does, but I'm willing to pay for convenience.
There was a time when I thought Apple might combine the HomePod and Apple TV into something like an "Apple Soundbar Pro" that would put all of the Apple TV features and apps into the soundbar hardware, which would also function as a high-end audio HomePod (using HomePod minis as satellite speakers) and an integrated HomeKit hub. They could probably make it all work through a single HDMI ARC connection to 4K TVs and monitors. But with the demise of the HomePod and Apple rolling much (but not all) of the Apple TV functionality into smart TV apps, my hopes aren't very high for such a mashup. Who knows? The only thing that's certain is uncertainty.
I think you’re right with regards to the AppleTV, it’s pretty terrible. The remote is the worst part by far and since they apparently ignore the desires of their customers they’ll never fix it. Rather axe the whole product it than admit the remote was crap. Though then that’d leave AppleTV+ sort of hanging, no one actually pays for it as the small selection of mostly woke content appeals to few, and the visibility of the service would be much less without the AppleTV. But then Cook has wasted billions on AppleTV+, so they can continue spending on AppleTV - IMO AppleTV+ is his attempt as a legacy, which is thus far a pretty big flop.
Comments
Remember when HomePod first came out and Apple said, "You are placing it wrong" and suggested not to place it on wood furniture because it will damage the surface and leave a ring. Even Apple's support document said if you don't want HomePod to leave a ring, don't put it on wood surfaces.
The sound was good, and I’m not a millennial. We even did blind A:B tests with a popular sound bar and the dual HPs won.
Bloggers and journalists (two entirely different things btw) are paid to blog and to write. On the other hand you may have proof that they are being paid by said companies, so we'll wait for you to present it.
A bunch of clueless millennials.
Another blanket statement to denigrate someone who doesn't always agree with you. Who are you talking about? MKBHD? The Yuryev brothers at MaxTech?
...bass or treble controls
Yes and when people had them (back in the 70's and 80's) on their hardware most left them on the 0 setting (ie default). Even on the software side, late 90's and early 2000's, very few ever adjusted. But I'm certain you can take and unbiased random sample of people right here on this forum who represent a fraction of a percent of the overall Apple buying public and you can find up 50% who actually care about those things.
other speakers that offered a ton more features
But you never list this ton more features. Or are they just gimmicks? "Hey Alexa, read out my calendar for me".
Sorry, but people that care about sound quality, do not listen to heavily compressed Apple Music at 256Kbps.
Tired old statement meant to denigrate anyone who doesn't appreciate or cannot afford to spend on equipment in the thousands of dollars to get that perceived extra clarity from their 96 KHz/24 bit masters. Please point us to a true ABX study where a truly random sample of people can actually hear the difference.
Apple Music Only....and you had to use other devices if you wanted to hear anything other than Apple Music
That's news to many of us who can actually stream various different sources from our iPhones straight to the HomePod but before you shifted the goalposts, you are right it does not natively support Amazon music, Spotify, Pandora etc. A mount Everest for you to climb but a very minor inconvenience for so many of the rest of us.
I said day one it was going to flop and it did.
In the Apple Store it sounded like a cheap boombox and certainly not worth the asking price. Then the dust and stain magnet fishnet outer finish. Even worse, the thing os pretty much unrepairable. And out of warranty repair started at close to the asking price.
That it flopped is not a surprise, what was a surprise is who signed off on it in the first place. A simple Dot like device that could be plugged in to an existing home system that sounds many times better would have made more sense. My Focals on their worst day sound better than the HomePod could ever aspire to.
In your 2nd paragraph you insinuate that only the HomePod attracts dust. News to every HomePod owner out there that see their divice attracting 2x, 3x, 4x .... more dust than comparable Sonos, Samsung, Amazon products...... Oh wait. other products attract dust too?
Your 3rd paragraph is laughable to say the least. Echo dots can just be dropped anywhere in your home and any of them sound better than the HomePod? I assume that the laws of physics do not apply in your household where number of internal speakers and size do not matter.
But then to make your above point, you compare it to your Focals (which I had to look up btw). So your Focal $1599 soundbar sounds better than a HomePod. Or maybe you meant this set of Focal Dôme Flax Pack 5.1 for $3990. Either way I'm glad you cleared that up for us.
The best two Focal speakers can do is Stereo, because they have just one Tweeter and Midrange/Woofer driver in each enclosure. In contrast, the HomePod has multiple tweeters and an A* processor, allowing a stereo pair to simulate Dolby Atmos very well.
In reality, there is no comparison between high-end speakers and the HomePod. Entirely different products built for entirely different use-cases.
Still doesn't change my opinion that the OP was trolling us.