rare comment

jeff_cook said:

Never had any out of sync buffer delay mixing the follow:

-Direct audio attached to a Mac 
-Airplay from the Mac to 3 Apple TVs (1 forth generation over HDMI, 2 second generation over analog out) attached to stereo receivers.  
-Airplay from the Mac  to 2 iHome WS2s over wifi
-Airplay from the Mac to 4 iHome WS3 over wifi
-Airplay from the Mac to Raspberry PI attached to stereo receiver.

all the above at the same time and all are in sync via iTunes on a Mac.

If I want to my iPhone provide the audio source, I can use a combination Airfoil Satellite for Mac  (and stream to the Mac) and Airfoil for Mac  (which distributes the incoming audio to other speakers) and Airfoil remote for iOS ( to control individual volumes of those outputs).

I don't use the iPhone to drive the audio source so much as a remote for iTunes on the Mac because I don't like draining my iPhone's battery.
If I do end up buying a HomePod, I'm not sure I would utilize Airplay 2 much for that same reason.  The battery life.

I suspect you are right regarding poor battery life if using Airplay 2 from a phone. But I also don't think that is the primary expected use case for the HomePod. HomePod seems to be primarily designed to play Apple Music which it draws directly from Apple's servers, not from a local device. Of course, just because that is Apple's intention, it doesn't mean users won't use HomePod differently (and the lack of support for non-Apple Music sources certainly means local device support is more relevant than it needs to be).

Soli said:

1) I wondered if and when AI was going to get to this story. This is massive… especially since Apple Watch is an abject failure. /s

2) As we know from Android- and Windows-based vendors, unit sales means squat without other factors. I'm curious how the Swiss watch makers are doing. I assume their high-end and low-end products aren't suffering, but that their mid-tier products—where I think they make the bulk of their revenue and profits—would be heavily affected by the Apple Watch

3)  As I've said for nearly 3 years now, the Apple Watch is "unnecessary, yet indispensable" and that still holds true today, if not more so, since it now allow me to keep my iPhone off my person more often as I now have the cellular Watch, and I wear it to bed to monitor and record my sleep patterns, only charging during my bis in die ablutions.

Re #2.  This observation (mid-tier Swiss is in the cross-hairs) is entirely right.  For more on this, see this regarding Apple's pricing strategy.

Also:
- how crazy is it that this report compares the output of a new watch company to an entire industry/group of companies?  
- what would the figures look like when matched in price range ($250-$1100) watches?
- would we see some drop off in swiss sales or is this entirely competition with non-consumption?
- finally - if mid-range Swiss watches are the gateway to higher end, this is a disaster for the swiss makers.

Weird - the stereo separation issue has echoes of the W1 syncing issue for AirPods - harder than it looks to solve. And, in the case of HomePod, the distance between the units is variable (whereas AirPods are always the same distance from the applicable ear). For other thoughts (really just questions, no answers) on HomePod's release and features, see here: http://q10a1.blogspot.com/2018/01/lots-of-homepod-questions.html

At $50, if it really provides some value, this will sell well. Skin care budgets are large and cost points are high; a small (.5 oz) vial of cream can go for $75.

Other than remembering to say "hey siri" instead of "alexa" (which is not a trivial thing to remember), I suspect there isn't much of a network/incumbency effect for alexa.

I suspect this because, from what I've read and personally experienced, there hasn't been much take-up of the entrenching features of alexa and google home (smart home controls, connection with lists, etc.).  It appears that they are mostly used to set alarms, play music, etc.  Even music may not hook people too deeply in unless there are well-curated playlists as I understand that the libraries of each subscription service are roughly the same.  We are reasonably tech savvy (and, in fact, to try to understand the use cases of always-on listening, bought both an Echo and Google Home when they were each first released, as well as a dot when it was first released) but have not created an IFTTT workflow or enabled meaningful skills for either.  And, because needed, we created a dedicated google account for the Home but haven't really integrated calendars and similar.  We use both daily and heavily but almost exclusively for: radio, news, timers, alarms, and music (uploaded in the case of the Home; amazon prime in the case of Alexa).

That said, given that spending dollars are limited, purchased alexa devices have of coursed squeeze out some portion of homepod purchases.  But, if some large portion of those alexa buyers figured "I can take a risk on this as it is $30", maybe even that squeeze out is not so meaningful as we have a sharply different price point.

All of the above also means that homepod may not have much stickiness.  It will depend on how Apple handles iCloud accounts.  A home device ideally will work with multiple iCloud accounts which raises very difficult security and privacy issues.  How do I make sure that a reminder goes to MY reminders list and not my kid's?  How do I keep my notes or emails distinct from my kid's?  iMessages?  Very very tricky.