iPhone owners more excited about HomePod or Beats than Amazon Echo, survey finds

AppleInsider · July 10, 2017 4:21PM

Interest among iPhone users in the upcoming HomePod speaker is greater than that of the Apple Watch prior to its launch, and more users are planning on buying Apple-produced speakers than Amazon Echo devices.

Circulated by analyst firm Raymond James and first reported by CNBC, 14 percent of iPhone owners were planning on purchasing the HomePod. Also according to the firm, following announcement of the Apple Watch and before shipping the device, 7 percent of iPhone users were looking to buy the wearable.

Raymond James also points out that combined with the 5 percent of iPhone owners actively looking to buy a Beats-branded speaker, that Apple tops the 16 percent looking to buy an Amazon Echo.

In June, a differently aimed survey showed that of 2200 adults, 33 percent said that they had interest in the HomePod. But, only 9 percent would probably purchase one, given the opportunity.

Among Apple users, the purchase intent rose to 17 percent, similar to the analyst's note from Friday.

Apple's HomePod was revealed at the 2017 WWDC. The HomePod is under 7 inches tall and wrapped in a 3D mesh acoustic fabric. In addition to the A8 chip that powers the device, it has 7 tweeters and a dynamic modeling subwoofer.

Features of the device beyond music-focused Siri integration include realtime acoustic modeling, audio beam-forming, and multi-channel echo cancellation.

zimmermann · July 10, 2017 4:35PM

Because of the huge installed base of customers with big pockets and a dedicated frame of mind anything Apple throws at them will be quickly adopted. What can go wrong?

dachar · July 10, 2017 4:39PM

I purchased an Amazon Echo when it first came out in the U.K. It was unable to connect to my British Telecom wifi router, which Amazon said they knew about. BT supply about 1 in 3 routers in the U.K, which is a massive amount of lost customers. I returned my Echo to receive a refund. Hopefully Apple's HomePod will not have the same issues and will simply work straight out of the box.

Rayz2016 · July 10, 2017 4:42PM

dachar said:

I purchased an Amazon Echo when it first came out in the U.K. It was unable to connect to my British Telecom wifi router, which Amazon said they knew about. BT supply about 1 in 3 routers in the U.K, which is a massive amount of lost customers. I returned my Echo to receive a refund. Hopefully Apple's HomePod will not have the same issues and will simply work straight out of the box.

Mmmm.

Amazon would probably fix the problem, if BT customers didn't replace the supplied router with one that works as soon as their service goes live.

macxpress · July 10, 2017 4:45PM

zimmermann said:

Because of the huge installed base of customers with big pockets and a dedicated frame of mind anything Apple throws at them will be quickly adopted. What can go wrong?

I think we've seen where just because it has an Apple logo on it doesn't mean people will buy it. There have been products that have failed for one reason or another...some of them being price. I'd say people buy it because its simply a better product so its worth the extra money. This isn't some cheapass speaker that just purchases things from Amazon and plays music.

jdgaz · July 10, 2017 4:48PM

Our first HomePod will go in the master bath. If that works out well and syncs timing wise to the Marantz receiver output in the family room then the living room will get a pair. Then hopefully Apple will launch a weatherproof option and the patio gets a couple.

Rayz2016 · July 10, 2017 4:50PM

YAFOAINHO

Yet Another Firm Of Analysts I've Never Heard Of.

techprod1gy · July 10, 2017 4:53PM

zimmermann said:

Because of the huge installed base of customers with big pockets and a dedicated frame of mind anything Apple throws at them will be quickly adopted. What can go wrong?

Apple has to be creating value based on all of their successes don't you think? What defines a "big pocket"? I have many friends without "big pockets" that appreciate the value of Apple's products...that was just a bad post. I forgive you.

lkrupp · July 10, 2017 4:56PM

zimmermann said:

Because of the huge installed base of customers with big pockets and a dedicated frame of mind anything Apple throws at them will be quickly adopted. What can go wrong?

Does that make you angry? Are those people stupid in your estimation?

brucemc · July 10, 2017 5:08PM

There seems to be limited value in these "I am interested in buying X" surveys. We never see follow-up or correlation.

I am interested in potentially buying one, depending upon the reviews and checking it out in person. At $350 USD, it would be worth it if it can provide a great music experience & provide home theatre sound when working with Apple TV. The Siri assistant is nice as an additional feature, but I would never buy a product just for an audio-only assistant.

Not available in my market at launch though, so might be on either the Father's Day or Christmas 2018 list...

rotateleftbyte · July 10, 2017 5:11PM

Rayz2016 said:

YAFOAINHO

Yet Another Firm Of Analysts I've Never Heard Of.

So called Analysts? Yawn, mega yawn.
Homepod? Yawn
Echo? Yawn, Yawn.
Siri, Bixbi and the rest? Yawn.

But hey no one ever asks me my opinion about this stuff.

massconn72 · July 10, 2017 5:12PM

Only time will tell if it performs as stated, but as far as design goes it's one of the most god awful things I have ever seen. Not just from Apple, but ever!

Rayz2016 · July 10, 2017 5:13PM

rotateleftbyte said:

Rayz2016 said:

YAFOAINHO

Yet Another Firm Of Analysts I've Never Heard Of.

So called Analysts? Yawn, mega yawn.
Homepod? Yawn
Echo? Yawn, Yawn.
Siri, Bixbi and the rest? Yawn.

But hey no one ever asks me my opinion about this stuff.

No one asked them. They're just drumming up interest in their snake oil.

smaffei · July 10, 2017 5:16PM

Echo dot, add your own high end speaker, and get Pandora, Spotify, and Sirius XM. Avoid shotgun wedding to the Apple Music.

Rayz2016 · July 10, 2017 5:34PM

What's the bst way to clean something like that?

zimmermann · July 10, 2017 5:40PM

lkrupp said:

zimmermann said:

Because of the huge installed base of customers with big pockets and a dedicated frame of mind anything Apple throws at them will be quickly adopted. What can go wrong?

Does that make you angry? Are those people stupid in your estimation?

No, not at all. I was merely expressing my fascination with the winner takes all paradigm. Apple is already hugely successful, and it seems that anything they put on the shelve, be it a speaker, or AirPods, a watch or whatever, it works. I think a very important factor is the large installed base (meaning they can really put effort and money in the design because they know a vast percentage will buy). Further we know from numerous surveys that Apple lovers have more to spend than Android users. Finally Apple users are (still - I believe) more dedicated - fans, lovers perhaps, than for instance Samsung users. So in my opinion it all adds up. Apple can really work on design, because they know they will sell.

schlack · July 10, 2017 5:49PM

I'm interested in buying it. $350 seems cheap enough *IF* it has great sound quality and can play in synch with more than one so that I can put two next to my TV. But needs to be equivalent or better than the best Sonos/Bose speakers sold for around $300.

suddenly newton · July 10, 2017 5:50PM

zimmermann said:

Because of the huge installed base of customers with big pockets and a dedicated frame of mind anything Apple throws at them will be quickly adopted. What can go wrong?

It may surprise you to learn that the majority of iPhone owners worldwide use a PC instead of a Mac. The same can be said of iPod owners, going back almost 20 years.

gmgravytrain · July 10, 2017 5:52PM

Hasn't it already been said that Apple is too late to the party to compete with the Amazon Echo or Google Home devices? I figured everyone who ever wanted a digital assistant already had one. Besides, a family can get about a dozen Amazon Echo Dots in place of one HomePod which will relegate the HomePod market share to about 1%. It's all about market share for everything, so Apple isn't going to get any praise for selling a couple of HomePods. /s I'd consider purchasing a HomePod if it were really smart enough to hold conversations with. I don't care much about how good the speaker is if I'm not going to be using it for music. The whole problem is that I really don't need such a device as a digital assistant.

tmay · July 10, 2017 5:55PM

schlack said:

I'm interested in buying it. $350 seems cheap enough *IF* it has great sound quality and can play in synch with more than one so that I can put two next to my TV. But needs to be equivalent or better than the best Sonos/Bose speakers sold for around $300.

You might want to spend some time reading reviews, some of which currently compare the HomePod favorably with Sonos/Bose, and multiple HomePods do work together.

StrangeDays · July 10, 2017 5:59PM

zimmermann said:

Because of the huge installed base of customers with big pockets and a dedicated frame of mind anything Apple throws at them will be quickly adopted. What can go wrong?

How did Ping turn out? Or iPod socks?

No, the mindless-cultists argument is bunk. People buy Apple gear because it's very good gear. They have above average build quality, above average support, above average longevity. That equals a lot of value for my jobs to be done which I purchase for.

iPhone owners more excited about HomePod or Beats than Amazon Echo, survey finds

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