danvm

StrangeDays said:

danvm said:

tmay said:

danvm said:

tmay said:

danvm said:

It would be impossible to cobble a similar platform out of the terrible speakers built into existing Echo and Dot appliances, and neither Amazon, Google, Samsung, Spotify or other speaker makers really have to clout to produce such a sophisticated, premium speaker and sell it to a critical mass of users globally.

Based in many reviews, the HomePod sound quality is very similar to the Google Home Max, and I wouldn't consider neither of them premium speakers.  And to say that Samsung is not capable of doing sophisticated premium speaker is non sense.  They own Harman Audio, which includes companies like Harman-Kardon, AKG, Infinity and Revel, among others.  Those companies have years of experience in the audio market.  We'll have to see the results of the final product, but I wouldn't count them out.  

Gee, seems like Samsung is going to play ketchup, yet again!

Meanwhile, Apple just created another $billion plus a year revenue stream. 

Definitely they are behind in this market, same as Apple is.  But I wouldn't say that Samsung is not capable of designing a premium speaker, considering they own a company like Harman Audio.  

Samsung is further behind in this market than Apple, since Apple has the premiere distribution network, and customers, as Daniel noted.

I'll rephrase, Samsung is not behind, they are not in the market yet.

By that same logic Apple wasn’t behind in the market, despite what everyone else has been saying for a year. 

StrangeDays said:

danvm said:

tmay said:

danvm said:

DanielEran said:

danvm said:

It would be impossible to cobble a similar platform out of the terrible speakers built into existing Echo and Dot appliances, and neither Amazon, Google, Samsung, Spotify or other speaker makers really have to clout to produce such a sophisticated, premium speaker and sell it to a critical mass of users globally.

Based in many reviews, the HomePod sound quality is very similar to the Google Home Max, and I wouldn't consider neither of them premium speakers.  And to say that Samsung is not capable of doing sophisticated premium speaker is non sense.  They own Harman Audio, which includes companies like Harman-Kardon, AKG, Infinity and Revel, among others.  Those companies have years of experience in the audio market.  We'll have to see the results of the final product, but I wouldn't count them out.  

The kicker on that sentence is "and sell it to a critical mass of users globally."

Samsung developed a Gear watch platform, Tizen, Galaxy Player, all manner of tablets, and no doubt it can make a speaker. But to create an audio platform that matters, it would need to learn how to sell those products to people who would pay any money for them.

Google hardware is a bullshit exercise in Verge fapping and nobody buys any of it in commercially relevant volumes. It doesn't matter that some bloggers can't tell the difference between a basic speaker and HomePod. If those reviews mattered Google would be a significant hardware seller rather than a source of billowing hot bullshit.

What about the other terms that are in the sentence, "sophisticated, premium speaker"?  Isn't that more important than "sell it to a critical mass of users globally"?  For a customer, it should be, and for me, it is.  Apple didn't make a premium speaker.  They made a smart speaker that sound as good as the competition, and even below them when you consider how far is Siri from Alexa and Google Assistance.  Even in the AppleInsider comparison of the HomePod with Google Home Max the reviewer conclude "Fortunately, there isn't enough of a difference between the two to justify buying one or the other for sound quality reasons alone."  But it seems like you are focused in sales numbers, while I'm more in the line of sound quality.  

DanVM,

Since you haven't listened to the speakers, and Daniel has, maybe you really don't know if the HomePod is a "sophisticated, premium speaker", but the HomePod is certainly an order of magnitude more "sophisticated" in its audio design than any other company's product in the smart speaker space, and likely more sophisticated that many of the AudioPhile speakers that you are referencing that are quite a bit more expensive.

Care to explain how important is the "sophisticated" audio design in the HomePod when the results, based in the AppleInsider comparison with the Home Max, is that "there isn't enough of a difference between the two to justify buying one or the other for sound quality reasons alone."?  And that's the same feedback I had read in many side-to-side comparisons.  BTW, when you mention audiophile speakers in your post, do you really think that the HomePod it's at that level of sound quality?

http://www.loopinsight.com/2018/01/24/on-homepod-and-audio-quality/

The room correction applied after probing its own position isn’t simplistic DSP of frequency response, as the speaker has seven drivers that are used to create a beamforming speaker array,. so they can direct specific sound in specific directions. The only other speakers that do this is the Beolab 90, and Lexicon SL-1. The Beolab 90 is $85,000/pair, and no price tag is set for the Lexicon, but the expectation in the industry is “astronomical”.

StrangeDays said:

danvm said:

tmay said:

danvm said:

It would be impossible to cobble a similar platform out of the terrible speakers built into existing Echo and Dot appliances, and neither Amazon, Google, Samsung, Spotify or other speaker makers really have to clout to produce such a sophisticated, premium speaker and sell it to a critical mass of users globally.

Based in many reviews, the HomePod sound quality is very similar to the Google Home Max, and I wouldn't consider neither of them premium speakers.  And to say that Samsung is not capable of doing sophisticated premium speaker is non sense.  They own Harman Audio, which includes companies like Harman-Kardon, AKG, Infinity and Revel, among others.  Those companies have years of experience in the audio market.  We'll have to see the results of the final product, but I wouldn't count them out.  

Gee, seems like Samsung is going to play ketchup, yet again!

Meanwhile, Apple just created another $billion plus a year revenue stream. 

Definitely they are behind in this market, same as Apple is.  But I wouldn't say that Samsung is not capable of designing a premium speaker, considering they own a company like Harman Audio.  

Yes and perhaps we will one day build a space elevator. Who cares what’s possible? Let’s talk about the real products here in real life, please. 

StrangeDays said:

danvm said:

It would be impossible to cobble a similar platform out of the terrible speakers built into existing Echo and Dot appliances, and neither Amazon, Google, Samsung, Spotify or other speaker makers really have to clout to produce such a sophisticated, premium speaker and sell it to a critical mass of users globally.

Based in many reviews, the HomePod sound quality is very similar to the Google Home Max, 

That isn’t what I’ve read at all. 

tmay said:

danvm said:

tmay said:

danvm said:

tmay said:

danvm said:

It would be impossible to cobble a similar platform out of the terrible speakers built into existing Echo and Dot appliances, and neither Amazon, Google, Samsung, Spotify or other speaker makers really have to clout to produce such a sophisticated, premium speaker and sell it to a critical mass of users globally.

Based in many reviews, the HomePod sound quality is very similar to the Google Home Max, and I wouldn't consider neither of them premium speakers.  And to say that Samsung is not capable of doing sophisticated premium speaker is non sense.  They own Harman Audio, which includes companies like Harman-Kardon, AKG, Infinity and Revel, among others.  Those companies have years of experience in the audio market.  We'll have to see the results of the final product, but I wouldn't count them out.  

Gee, seems like Samsung is going to play ketchup, yet again!

Meanwhile, Apple just created another $billion plus a year revenue stream. 

Definitely they are behind in this market, same as Apple is.  But I wouldn't say that Samsung is not capable of designing a premium speaker, considering they own a company like Harman Audio.  

Samsung is further behind in this market than Apple, since Apple has the premiere distribution network, and customers, as Daniel noted.

I'll rephrase, Samsung is not behind, they are not in the market yet.

Samsung already announced that they are working on a smart speaker product, which will be delayed because of "Bixby", so yeah, they are already in the market.

https://www.techradar.com/news/samsungs-bixby-smart-speaker-to-take-on-apple-homepod-in-second-half-of-2018

"As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Samsung will release a “premium” Bixby smart speaker in the second half of 2018. Koh’s announcement contradicted an earlier report from Bloomberg that it would sell the speaker early in the year".

So Samsung is building a "premium" smart speaker that looks to be, at best, a direct competitor to Apple's "HomePod" premium smart speaker.