robbyx said: Anyone who seriously cares about audio quality isn’t buying a HomePod. That person is buying a Sonos Connect Amp, an Echo or a Google Home and connecting actual high end speakers.
In how many rooms of the house are they going to put in a large scale audiophile quality component system? It's like TVs...most people will typically have a larger primary system that they might sink serious $$ into, then some more compact and less expensive models in other parts of the house/apartment.
A Sonos Connect box is much smaller than a HomePod. Echo and Home can both connect to powered speakers. I’m not talking about a large scale audiophile setup. But I agree that most people have a mix. I use Sonos with my built-in speakers so I stick with Sonos for the rooms that don’t have built-ins. I tried HomePod. It was ok. Not as good as my Play5, but definitely a great sounding speaker. I think Apple is kidding themselves, though, if they think HomePod is for audiophiles and that its audio chops are its distinguishing feature. As others have said, smart speaker consumers aren’t exactly audiophiles. They care about price more than anything. Audiophiles want better speakers than any of these products offer. At least with Echo and Home, audiophiles can pick their speakers. Sonos still offers the best of all choices because the consumer can mix Sonos speakers with speakers of their choice. I hope Apple makes a speaker-less HomePod like the Sonos Connect.
I's like to see the same graph but based on profits.
As an aside, I now have Alexa, Goggle assistant and Siri on my iPhone and after hours of asking them all the same questions it is pretty amazing for me to discover Alexa and Google assistant are just as prone to the 'I don't know that' as Siri.
Why? Everyone knows what Apple’s business model is and that Google and Amazon have completely different business models. I suppose someone could throw up a chart showing Apple is more profitable than Sonos if that makes some people feel better about Apple.
Why would I like to see financials as well as volumes? Well as a AAPL stock holder I care about these things. You know, net profits on products as opposed to sales volume. As to comparing Sonos with Apple? What sense would that make? Comparing Sonos speaker sales and profits to HomePods' makes total sense, That said I know Apple doesn't give out that information, hence I said I'd like to see it, It's like looking at the early iPhones and Motorola mobile phones sales volume and profits, or iPhones today with Android phones in the same light. That data is crucial in investment decisions IMHO.
...I'd like to see a SIRI-less audio only option at a lower price, adding an external analog/digital input, presumably both for stereo pairing, home entertainment systems...
Don't forget to buy a pair speakers that good and with beam-forming technology and a good amp would cost way more than a pair of HomePods and no voice assistant. So you get Siri for free already. $700 bucks is a steal for what you get.
Saying there is a home speaker market is like saying there is a tablet market. There's really just the iPad and Alexa and they're both going around bayoneting the survivors at this point.
Here is one data point, recently I have been in people's homes who had an Alexa device and they were all unplugged, not bein used.
My wife's family does a family vacation to the beach every couple of years and we rent a large beach house. This years house had an Alexa device, but someone in the family unplugged it and when ask about it everyone just said to leave it unplug. They were not interested in it randomly responding and listen to the "what happens at the beach vacation says at the beach" conversations.
That installed base number I would image will be meaningless, people are buying these things and within a short period of time they seem not to be using them. Installed yes, but useful not at all.
Interesting! I have a google home (or mini) in every room of my house and all of them are always on. (We use it primarily for music, timers and alarms). That is not to say people with google home always keep it on. Just that these things are subjective and can vary from person to person..
Here's what I think Apple people miss when talking about smart speakers. Market share is the only thing that matters in this space. The reason is that it's a very small market without much reason to update once you have your speaker. For most people, they will keep their smart speaker for years. You won't be upgrading your echo, Home, or HomePod every year or two. People will buy far fewer speakers than phones, tablets, or watches. And they will keep them longer. How the tech companies make their money on these things is the services they provide. Things like Apple Music. An Echo owner spends, on avg, $1,700 per year on Amazon. That's $400 more per year than the avg Prime Member and $700 more than the average consumer. If Apple only has 10% of the market by 2022, then they have lost, no matter how much profit they make on the HomePod.
Comments
Don't forget to buy a pair speakers that good and with beam-forming technology and a good amp would cost way more than a pair of HomePods and no voice assistant. So you get Siri for free already. $700 bucks is a steal for what you get.