This reminds me of how Microsoft laughed at the iPhone with little comedy sketches. The landscape is littered with companies that didn't believe Apple could succeed in markets they thought they were safely entrenched in. I have some advice ... Be afraid Sonos, be very afraid.
Really? You think a mock funeral is the same as actually welcoming a competitor to get some free press for your product?
My second sentence stands regardless of how you interpreted Microsoft's intent.
Reminds me of the ad Apple made when the IBM PC was launched.
For those that haven't seen it.
I think when MS finally jumped out of DOS to some version of Windows between 1.0 and 95 they also used "C:\ ongrats!" to piggyback on the buzz those companies had.
Wow.... Thin skins abound apparently. I saw it more as a friendly poke in a fun way, but several posters in this thread are taking it more as a personal affront, reason to circle the wagons and cheer for Sonos demise.
Geesh, it wasn't all that long ago that Sonos was a favored Apple-friendly brand and spoken of highly here. So all it takes is a product from Apple that plays in the same space to change hearts and minds.
Ask Microsoft's phone division about that lol. Good you rise to defend Sonos though, I assume you own some? I think they are great products but Apple just moved the puck. You didn't own a single Apple product last time I asked you yet seem to be a full time defender of any Apple competitor, pay must be good. I always wonder if there are equivalents to you on Google and Android web sites doing the reverse?
This reminds me of how Microsoft laughed at the iPhone with little comedy sketches. The landscape is littered with companies that didn't believe Apple could succeed in markets they thought they were safely entrenched in. I have some advice ... Be afraid Sonos, be very afraid.
Really? You think a mock funeral is the same as actually welcoming a competitor to get some free press for your product?
My second sentence stands regardless of how you interpreted Microsoft's intent.
You think that is one product from Apple is going to tank all of Sonos despite Sonos only having one product that is voice controlled by a digital personal assistant? Do you think that all speaker makers should be "very afraid" because of a 5lb speaker that cost $350? Do you not see how, say, a portable BT speaker or a full HEC sound system with A/V receiver will still have their place in the market?
Sonos will be fine, because they offer something Apple doesn't: quality sound at various price points. Most of you seem to have forgotten that Sonos has already *worked with Apple* to eventually bring Siri functionality and AirPlay 2 to the Sonos One. Does the S1 sound as good as the HomePod? I haven't tested it personally, but reviews say it is fine but not HomePod level.
It's also priced at half as much (when you buy a pair) as the HomePod. And the sound is more than good enough for the price, and more than good enough for 95 percent of the people who eventually buy some kind of smart speaker. I'm glad Apple always tries to be the best experience on the market, but let's try to remember that you audiophile nerds make up MAYBE four percent of the eventual market for these things, and that "the best possible sound" is NOT the criteria for the vast majority of buyers. "Better sound than I have now for as little money as possible" is the criteria. The voice assistant thing will become a novelty for everything but music playback, just like it is for most (repeat: MOST) smartphone users, at least in the foreseeable future.
Amazon says they have sold "millions" of the unbelievably poor Echo Dot, which sends back everything you say to Amazon. CLEARLY, the group here have a wildly different criteria than mainstream buyers. This is not to say Apple won't do well: I think once again we're in a situation where Apple will be seen as the expensive and high-quality option, and the various Alexa options will be the most popular for the crowd that wants a smart speaker. Sonos' non-smart and smart speakers will stake the middle ground, unless Google tries again and makes a cheaper speaker (I predict the Google Home Max will be around for two years and then be quietly dropped, like a lot of their stuff).
Over time, I think Apple will finally start focusing more on Siri and improve that experience, essentially cancelling out what the reviews say is the only negative beyond price. But the HomePod will not become a mainstream device until some terrible security issue hits the other speakers and not HomePod (this has already happened in a minor way, hackers taking over speakers and making them play ghostly sounds!). HomePod will be like Apple TV: exceedingly loved by people smart enough to own one, ignored by the masses in favor of cheap privacy-ignoring, security-ignoring novelty crap for the most part. If Sonos actually gets all the additions built into Sonos One that they have promised, it will be HomePod's only real competition; the Amazon stuff, at least thus far, consists of lousy speakers that have a better voice assistant whose main job is to help you buy stuff from Amazon. I wouldn't talk to an Alexa device if my life depended on it, but that's just me.
IMHO: HomePod sounds about equivalent in quality to a first generation Sonos Play:5. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and they come up darned close to each other overall. As for responsiveness to voice commands, HomePod trounces Amazon Echo and Echo Dot. Finally, no need to yell!!!! HomePod Siri seems a little better than Siri on my iPad, iPhone and Watch. And HomePod seems smarter than I expected, but admittedly I've not used Siri much for quite a while because of bad/limited experience. Conclusion: I'm happy with the HomePod, look forward to software improvements, and can't see buying another Echo or Sonos product.
Wow.... Thin skins abound apparently. I saw it more as a friendly poke in a fun way, but several posters in this thread are taking it more as a personal affront, reason to circle the wagons and cheer for Sonos demise.
Geesh, it wasn't all that long ago that Sonos was a favored Apple-friendly brand and spoken of highly here. So all it takes is a product from Apple that plays in the same space to change hearts and minds.
Ask Microsoft's phone division about that lol. Good you rise to defend Sonos though, I assume you own some? I think they are great products but Apple just moved the puck. You didn't own a single Apple product last time I asked you yet seem to be a full time defender of any Apple competitor, pay must be good. I always wonder if there are equivalents to you on Google and Android web sites doing the reverse?
No I've never said I don't own any Apple products because I do. I also don't own any Sonos products so I'm not here to defend them. I've no horse in the race.
What I am saying is the only thing changed about Sonos since they were a favorite of many Apple fans less than a year ago is they find themselves in unplanned competition with a new Apple product, and certainly not of their making. For some such as yourself that seems to be enough to attract dire predictions of doom, implications that they are getting what they deserve, and glee over their predicted demise.
Wow.... Thin skins abound apparently. I saw it more as a friendly poke in a fun way, but several posters in this thread are taking it more as a personal affront, reason to circle the wagons and cheer for Sonos demise.
Geesh, it wasn't all that long ago that Sonos was a favored Apple-friendly brand and spoken of highly here. So all it takes is a product from Apple that plays in the same space to change hearts and minds.
Ask Microsoft's phone division about that lol. Good you rise to defend Sonos though, I assume you own some? I think they are great products but Apple just moved the puck. You didn't own a single Apple product last time I asked you yet seem to be a full time defender of any Apple competitor, pay must be good. I always wonder if there are equivalents to you on Google and Android web sites doing the reverse?
No I've never said I don't own any Apple products because I do. I also don't own any Sonos products so I'm not here to defend them. I've no horse in the race.
What I am saying is the only thing changed about Sonos since they were a favorite of many Apple fans less than a year ago is they find themselves in unplanned competition with a new Apple product, and certainly not of their making. For some such as yourself that seems to be enough to attract predictions of doom and glee over their supposed soon to come demise.
It's funny how they went from one extreme to the other. The same goes for other aspects of HomePod. One of the commonly touted features is how well the 6 far-field mics work, yet when I brought that up on the Echo has been a key and initial aspect of any great voice control system over the last 3 years I was told that an iPhone or iPad that can do "Hey Siri" was just as good to even a remarkably mind numbing comment about how Amazon failed by adding 6 microphones when Apple would only need to include one… which they wouldn't do because they would never enter the home-based digital personal assistant market.
Wow.... Thin skins abound apparently. I saw it more as a friendly poke in a fun way, but several posters in this thread are taking it more as a personal affront, reason to circle the wagons and cheer for Sonos demise.
Geesh, it wasn't all that long ago that Sonos was a favored Apple-friendly brand and spoken of highly here. So all it takes is a product from Apple that plays in the same space to change hearts and minds.
Nope, just took years of my friends complaining about their Sonos systems not working properly. Latest one last week -- evidently you have to import your Apple Music playlists into the Sonos app to be able to play it back. My friend routinely updates the playlist in AM, but the copy thats imported in the Sonos app is stale. Has retried re-importing, no dice, we simply could not get Sonos to play the newest version of the playlist. My other Apple friend gave up on his flaky Sonos bridge and speakers and app and fired it altogether. Maybe it's gotten simpler, but the damage has been done. I'd prefer not to invest in middle-ware when a first-party solution is available.
Sonos is futzy. Enter HomePod.
But we get it -- you have a PR war you must wage against Apple fans. On an Apple site. rolleyes.
Reminds me of the ad Apple made when the IBM PC was launched.
For those that haven't seen it.
I think when MS finally jumped out of DOS to some version of Windows between 1.0 and 95 they also used "C:\ ongrats!" to piggyback on the buzz those companies had.
Sonos will be fine, because they offer something Apple doesn't: quality sound at various price points. Most of you seem to have forgotten that Sonos has already *worked with Apple* to eventually bring Siri functionality and AirPlay 2 to the Sonos One. Does the S1 sound as good as the HomePod? I haven't tested it personally, but reviews say it is fine but not HomePod level.
It's also priced at half as much (when you buy a pair) as the HomePod. And the sound is more than good enough for the price, and more than good enough for 95 percent of the people who eventually buy some kind of smart speaker. I'm glad Apple always tries to be the best experience on the market, but let's try to remember that you audiophile nerds make up MAYBE four percent of the eventual market for these things, and that "the best possible sound" is NOT the criteria for the vast majority of buyers. "Better sound than I have now for as little money as possible" is the criteria. The voice assistant thing will become a novelty for everything but music playback, just like it is for most (repeat: MOST) smartphone users, at least in the foreseeable future.
Amazon says they have sold "millions" of the unbelievably poor Echo Dot, which sends back everything you say to Amazon. CLEARLY, the group here have a wildly different criteria than mainstream buyers. This is not to say Apple won't do well: I think once again we're in a situation where Apple will be seen as the expensive and high-quality option, and the various Alexa options will be the most popular for the crowd that wants a smart speaker. Sonos' non-smart and smart speakers will stake the middle ground, unless Google tries again and makes a cheaper speaker (I predict the Google Home Max will be around for two years and then be quietly dropped, like a lot of their stuff).
Over time, I think Apple will finally start focusing more on Siri and improve that experience, essentially cancelling out what the reviews say is the only negative beyond price. But the HomePod will not become a mainstream device until some terrible security issue hits the other speakers and not HomePod (this has already happened in a minor way, hackers taking over speakers and making them play ghostly sounds!). HomePod will be like Apple TV: exceedingly loved by people smart enough to own one, ignored by the masses in favor of cheap privacy-ignoring, security-ignoring novelty crap for the most part. If Sonos actually gets all the additions built into Sonos One that they have promised, it will be HomePod's only real competition; the Amazon stuff, at least thus far, consists of lousy speakers that have a better voice assistant whose main job is to help you buy stuff from Amazon. I wouldn't talk to an Alexa device if my life depended on it, but that's just me.
Android tablets thought they could survive under the price umbrella Apple had left open under the original iPad prices. When Apple closed it, they were proven incorrect. It doesn't take much.
RIM didn't die immediately after the iPhone launch, but the damage was clear years later.
Wow.... Thin skins abound apparently. I saw it more as a friendly poke in a fun way, but several posters in this thread are taking it more as a personal affront, reason to circle the wagons and cheer for Sonos demise.
Geesh, it wasn't all that long ago that Sonos was a favored Apple-friendly brand and spoken of highly here. So all it takes is a product from Apple that plays in the same space to change hearts and minds.
Ask Microsoft's phone division about that lol. Good you rise to defend Sonos though, I assume you own some? I think they are great products but Apple just moved the puck. You didn't own a single Apple product last time I asked you yet seem to be a full time defender of any Apple competitor, pay must be good. I always wonder if there are equivalents to you on Google and Android web sites doing the reverse?
No I've never said I don't own any Apple products because I do. I also don't own any Sonos products so I'm not here to defend them. I've no horse in the race.
What I am saying is the only thing changed about Sonos since they were a favorite of many Apple fans less than a year ago is they find themselves in unplanned competition with a new Apple product, and certainly not of their making. For some such as yourself that seems to be enough to attract predictions of doom and glee over their supposed soon to come demise.
It's funny how they went from one extreme to the other. The same goes for other aspects of HomePod. One of the commonly touted features is how well the 6 far-field mics work, yet when I brought that up on the Echo has been a key and initial aspect of any great voice control system over the last 3 years I was told that an iPhone or iPad that can do "Hey Siri" was just as good to even a remarkably mind numbing comment about how Amazon failed by adding 6 microphones when Apple would only need to include one… which they wouldn't do because they would never enter the home-based digital personal assistant market.
Nah. I clearly recall the forum discussions over the past year, with you cheerleading Amazon's listener gizmos while critics asked "Why do I need to ask a stationary device to buy more toilet paper?" It was always that a voice control gizmo to read the news just isn't that useful.
HomePod is very clearly a different device. It's not a gizmo for buying toilet paper or setting reminders. It's a high-quality speaker for music first, for which Apple decided voice-as-interface was appropriate second. So I can't put a name to anyone who flip-flopped as you've suggested they have.
Wow.... Thin skins abound apparently. I saw it more as a friendly poke in a fun way, but several posters in this thread are taking it more as a personal affront, reason to circle the wagons and cheer for Sonos demise.
Geesh, it wasn't all that long ago that Sonos was a favored Apple-friendly brand and spoken of highly here. So all it takes is a product from Apple that plays in the same space to change hearts and minds.
Ask Microsoft's phone division about that lol. Good you rise to defend Sonos though, I assume you own some? I think they are great products but Apple just moved the puck. You didn't own a single Apple product last time I asked you yet seem to be a full time defender of any Apple competitor, pay must be good. I always wonder if there are equivalents to you on Google and Android web sites doing the reverse?
No I've never said I don't own any Apple products because I do. I also don't own any Sonos products so I'm not here to defend them. I've no horse in the race.
What I am saying is the only thing changed about Sonos since they were a favorite of many Apple fans less than a year ago is they find themselves in unplanned competition with a new Apple product, and certainly not of their making. For some such as yourself that seems to be enough to attract predictions of doom and glee over their supposed soon to come demise.
It's funny how they went from one extreme to the other. The same goes for other aspects of HomePod. One of the commonly touted features is how well the 6 far-field mics work, yet when I brought that up on the Echo has been a key and initial aspect of any great voice control system over the last 3 years I was told that an iPhone or iPad that can do "Hey Siri" was just as good to even a remarkably mind numbing comment about how Amazon failed by adding 6 microphones when Apple would only need to include one… which they wouldn't do because they would never enter the home-based digital personal assistant market.
Nah. I clearly recall the forum discussions over the past year, with you cheerleading Amazon's listener gizmos while critics asked "Why do I need to ask a stationary device to buy more toilet paper?" It was always that a voice control gizmo to read the news just isn't that useful.
HomePod is very clearly a different device. It's not a gizmo for buying toilet paper or setting reminders. It's a high-quality speaker for music first, for which Apple decided voice-as-interface was appropriate second. So I can't put a name to anyone who flip-flopped as you've suggested they have.
1) Which critic wrote what you quoted? I can't find any evidence of it. I also don't know a single person who has ever used an Echo to make purchases, and have stated repeatedly that I haven't nor can think of an instance where I would. That said, there are also plenty of features in iOS and macOS that I never use—some I'd even consider silly—but to lambaste an entire product because of a single feature I don't want to use when there are plenty that are useful, convenient, and/or amazing is asinine. You even call all other devices in their product segment "gizmos" which shows your true colors in this conversation. Have you even used an Echo? Have you used a HomePod? At least own the devices before deciding to go all pollice verso like you're Commodus.
2) BTW, I've been talking about the virtues of a home-based digital personal assistant for over 3 years now—not one. I also said that Apple will enter this field and people like you said they wouldn't and gave lame excuses like 'if they were they would've done so by now' despite my comments that Apple typically enters a field late with a lateral move. I've also been saying since the HomePod was announced 8 months ago that Apple will advance Siri over time to do more functions akin to the other players while you and your ilk hate to scuttle to a new talking point since they did the unthinkable with comments that suggested that Siri was a secondary feature and the using AirPlay to use Sirius XM instead of a voice command was just as good.
3) The results are in and having any other digital personal assistance connected to the common HEC is likely going to offer you better sound. That even includes Hey Siri on an old iPhone or via the Apple TV's Siri Remote. The only way HomePod seems to come out on top someone that has no current home setup and is only—not just squarely, as I am—in the Apple ecosystem. Even a Google Home Max would probably sound better as the single speaker system directly under the TV and facing the coach than a single HomePod the way Apple shows it sitting on a. table on the side of the room.
4) The HomePod literally sets Reminders (and Notes) better than any other device I've tried. It's settings timers where it falls down flat.
Comments
I think when MS finally jumped out of DOS to some version of Windows between 1.0 and 95 they also used "C:\ ongrats!" to piggyback on the buzz those companies had.
Ask Microsoft's phone division about that lol. Good you rise to defend Sonos though, I assume you own some? I think they are great products but Apple just moved the puck. You didn't own a single Apple product last time I asked you yet seem to be a full time defender of any Apple competitor, pay must be good. I always wonder if there are equivalents to you on Google and Android web sites doing the reverse?
As for responsiveness to voice commands, HomePod trounces Amazon Echo and Echo Dot. Finally, no need to yell!!!!
HomePod Siri seems a little better than Siri on my iPad, iPhone and Watch.
And HomePod seems smarter than I expected, but admittedly I've not used Siri much for quite a while because of bad/limited experience.
Conclusion: I'm happy with the HomePod, look forward to software improvements, and can't see buying another Echo or Sonos product.
What I am saying is the only thing changed about Sonos since they were a favorite of many Apple fans less than a year ago is they find themselves in unplanned competition with a new Apple product, and certainly not of their making. For some such as yourself that seems to be enough to attract dire predictions of doom, implications that they are getting what they deserve, and glee over their predicted demise.
Sonos is futzy. Enter HomePod.
But we get it -- you have a PR war you must wage against Apple fans. On an Apple site. rolleyes.
Android tablets thought they could survive under the price umbrella Apple had left open under the original iPad prices. When Apple closed it, they were proven incorrect. It doesn't take much.
RIM didn't die immediately after the iPhone launch, but the damage was clear years later.
Nah. I clearly recall the forum discussions over the past year, with you cheerleading Amazon's listener gizmos while critics asked "Why do I need to ask a stationary device to buy more toilet paper?" It was always that a voice control gizmo to read the news just isn't that useful.
HomePod is very clearly a different device. It's not a gizmo for buying toilet paper or setting reminders. It's a high-quality speaker for music first, for which Apple decided voice-as-interface was appropriate second. So I can't put a name to anyone who flip-flopped as you've suggested they have.
As usual, Gruber nails it.
https://daringfireball.net/2018/02/homepod
2) BTW, I've been talking about the virtues of a home-based digital personal assistant for over 3 years now—not one. I also said that Apple will enter this field and people like you said they wouldn't and gave lame excuses like 'if they were they would've done so by now' despite my comments that Apple typically enters a field late with a lateral move. I've also been saying since the HomePod was announced 8 months ago that Apple will advance Siri over time to do more functions akin to the other players while you and your ilk hate to scuttle to a new talking point since they did the unthinkable with comments that suggested that Siri was a secondary feature and the using AirPlay to use Sirius XM instead of a voice command was just as good.
3) The results are in and having any other digital personal assistance connected to the common HEC is likely going to offer you better sound. That even includes Hey Siri on an old iPhone or via the Apple TV's Siri Remote. The only way HomePod seems to come out on top someone that has no current home setup and is only—not just squarely, as I am—in the Apple ecosystem. Even a Google Home Max would probably sound better as the single speaker system directly under the TV and facing the coach than a single HomePod the way Apple shows it sitting on a. table on the side of the room.
4) The HomePod literally sets Reminders (and Notes) better than any other device I've tried. It's settings timers where it falls down flat.
Sonos doesn’t have to lose for Apple to win. Just sayin’