Apple HomePod (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

rev·o·lu·tion·ar·y - involving or causing a complete or dramatic change

I stand by my statement. The iPhone is the smartphone that ushered in the change. NOBODY was selling anything like the iPhone when the iPhone was introduced. The iPhone shifted everyone's thinking.

Mark

Mark, I agree with that!

 

[Ted Todorov]

rev·o·lu·tion·ar·y - involving or causing a complete or dramatic change

I stand by my statement. The iPhone is the smartphone that ushered in the change. NOBODY was selling anything like the iPhone when the iPhone was introduced. The iPhone shifted everyone's thinking.

Mark

All true - but my point was if you think that a revolutionary product will instantly be recognized as such, the world has proven otherwise again and again.

In the case of the iPhone - the only other people who weren’t long time Apple aficionados like me who recognized it were Google’s Android developers, courtesy of Google’s CEO, who happened to be on Apple’s board of directors, were ordered to drop their Blackberry copy and start working on their own iPhone instantly. No other company got it, which is why BlackBerry, Nokia, Palm & Windows Mobile all went down the drain. And few ordinary people got it - the original iPhone sold something like a couple of hundred thousand iPhones in the first two months before the price was dropped to $399. After the first day of sales you could walk into any Apple Store and instantly buy an iPhone. It started selling out many months later when mostly Russian & Chinese tourists started buying them in bulk to resell at much higher prices at home.

So the HomePod may or may not be a big deal - but considering it isn’t even showing up at Apple Stores until tomorrow, and nobody at this forum has even heard it yet (I will sometime next week) - we have no way of predicting the future. And the future may take a while - the Apple Watch didn’t really take off until its current - third/fourth version was released in September. But it did crush it’s competition, and is currently outselling all watches - smart or otherwise.

 

[Carlo_M]

It is absolutely true (from the dozens of reviews I've read) that Siri is nowhere near as intelligent as other competitors implementations on speakers. Heck, I think my roommate's Alexa speaker is smarter than my iPhone X's Siri!

It's also abundantly clear that Apple can take a product that is behind in certain features (as was pointed out in the previous page of this thread, the original iPhone was) and in just a few short years time make it class-leading.

It is also abundantly clear that Apple can let products languish for a long time (Mac Mini), or make incremental strides that never fully catch up to--or surpass--the competition (AppleTV).

Will the HomePod be the next iPhone, a bit "beta" in the beginning but a rocketship poised to take off? Or will it be the Mac Mini/AppleTV? A nice device that serves a function but isn't super compelling to buyers and not as innovative of a device as you'd hope from Apple?

I'm hoping for the former but expecting the latter. Why? It seems to be about a combination of price/profit margin, and total sales. The iPhone has a great profit margin, and tremendous sales, and thus Apple gives it its undivided attention. AppleTV and the MacMini are lower profit margins and sell in much less volume...and so progress on those is at a snail's pace in comparison to the iPhone.

That said, I personally focus on sound more than smarts, so I do foresee a HomePod in my future. But I don't expect it to be revolutionary like the iPhone (and iPad) were.

 

[Ted Todorov]

So to anyone thinking that a couple of Sonos will be even better than a HomePod:
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/02/08/homepod-first-impressions-regular-users/

I can definititvely say that the #HomePod sounds substantially better than my $1000 #Sonos system

Holy Crap - I am an audiophile and the HomePod is an austounding leap forward in audio for price - the separation and soundstage from a “single” speaker is amaze balls

etc.

Remember: software updates can fix the software problems (and Apple will update for years). But hardware is forever.

 

[dpippel]

Sound quality is such a subjective thing. I'd have to hear it for myself to make a judgement like that. That being said, the HomePod is trying to compete with Echo, Google Home, and Sonos as a SMART speaker. In that capacity it falls far short at this point in time.

 

[Mark Booth]

I listened to MacBreak Weekly yesterday. Rene Richie (who is the ultimate Apple fanboy but also clearly has some inside connections) seemed pretty confident that a developer kit for HomePod is coming for release to developers at WWDC in June. A dev kit that will allow the folks at Spotify and Pandora to add Siri voice control to their services.

The positive reviews for the HomePod's sound quality are off the charts. Professional reviewers and folks in Australia and other places that already received their HomePods all seem to be in agreement, you can stick the speaker just about anywhere and it sounds terrific. Reportedly, it does an excellent job of simulating a pair of stereo speakers from a single speaker. The sound field is reportedly quite expansive. It sounds much "bigger" than its size. And Siri voice control can recognize the 'Hey Siri" command at a normal voice level even if the speaker is being played very loudly.

I feel my resolve (to wait for 3rd party music services compatibility) weakening. I'm tempted to pay a visit to an Apple Store today to have a listen.

Mark

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Mark,

Keep us posted, please, on your experiences.

lf I wasn't already invested in Sonos, I would consider the HomePod.

 

[Mark Booth]

I checked and my local Apple Store has HomePod available for in-store pickup. I decided to order one (to be picked up later today). But just one. I'm thinking of it as a free trial. If it doesn't suit my needs, I have 14 days to return it for a full refund.

Mark

 

[Carlo_M]

For those who want one and didn't preorder, they seem to be in plentiful supply. There are 12 Apple Stores within 20 miles of me (yeah I know I'm spoiled to live in Los Angeles) and currently all are showing green "you can pick this up today" notifications.

For s@!ts and giggles I checked Best Buy as well. There are 15 within 25 miles of me, and all say "Pick up in store - one hour" for the HomePod.

This isn't a typical "new iPhone release shortage" situation.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Sound quality is such a subjective thing. I'd have to hear it for myself to make a judgement like that. That being said, the HomePod is trying to compete with Echo, Google Home, and Sonos as a SMART speaker. In that capacity it falls far short at this point in time.

I agree that sound is subjective in general, but with something like an Echo it is objective, considering the Echo sounds like an old clock radio. Another good objective report on the sound quality: in her video WSJ’s columnist Joanna Stern had the HomePod on stage of a 450 seat concert hall and sat on the last row — not only was it loud enough and sounded great for the whole auditorium, but at that distance, with the music playing, Siri could still hear her instructions.

Also, I am happy to believe that Siri is inferior to Google and Amazon right now - but it can improve - the sound quality of the speakers never will.

 

[Carlo_M]

I fully expect the sound to be tremendous. It's the "Siri will get smarter" that I worry about. In that she hasn't gotten significantly smarter on the iPhone X (at least not to the point where I find her useful) in the X number of years it's been available on iPhones. So I have a little trepidation in believing now that the HomePod is out, that that is the gamechanger that will suddenly make Siri catch up and even surpass the others. Apple's been working on Siri for many years, and it's still lagging behind the others.

But, luckily for Apple, I'm an audiophile first so I'll be picking one up shortly. I just want to moderate expectations for those who think "oh Apple can do anything!" and pick this up thinking that Siri will shortly become a true Alexa competitor. Apple has sold over a billion iDevices with Siri and it still hasn't surpassed the other smart assistants. I don't think the several million (I'm being optimistic here) HomePods are going to "kick Siri dev into high gear". It's already been in high gear, and it still "is what it is".

EDIT: just googled it, Siri was integrated into the iPhone 4S in Oct 2011 (prior to that it was an app before Apple bought the company). So Apple's been developing Siri for over six years.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Carlo, I totally agree with you. The main improvements I can attest to aren’t Siri directly but dictation- which has gotten to be much more accurate, and supporting new languages.

Still, I do have some hope here. One clear reason is that the HomePod has radically better microphones and also a consistently reliable online landline - I think at least part of the problem with iPhone based Siri, is garbled/delayed talk being enterpreted by Siri.

We’ll see...

 

[dpippel]

I agree that sound is subjective in general, but with something like an Echo it is objective, considering the Echo sounds like an old clock radio. Another good objective report on the sound quality: in her video WSJ’s columnist Joanna Stern had the HomePod on stage of a 450 seat concert hall and sat on the last row — not only was it loud enough and sounded great for the whole auditorium, but at that distance, with the music playing, Siri could still hear her instructions.

Also, I am happy to believe that Siri is inferior to Google and Amazon right now - but it can improve - the sound quality of the speakers never will.

True statement. If all you're looking for is a small speaker that sounds very good and has some smart functionality, and you don't mind the price tag, then the HomePod might be a good choice. If smart home functionality is your primary consideration then an Alexa-enabled device is the clear winner.

I've got no axe to grind with Apple (I own an iPhone X, Apple Watch, Apple TV 4K, and a 2017 MacBook Pro), but IMO the HomePod is not ready for primetime. It's ecosystem is extremely limited compared to the competition and in my case anyway, I've got a 5 channel audio system that blows the audio quality doors off anything the size of the HomePod. So, despite being an good Apple customer I see that this device just isn't designed for me. I think the company may find that's the case with a good portion of their existing customer base.

 

[DavidJ]

I need to hear it and judge for myself, but I will say as I was exploring reviews last night I was intrigued to find the Sonos One deal. Getting two speakers for true stereo for the same price as the HomePod seems hard to pass up.

 

[Ted Todorov]

I need to hear it and judge for myself, but I will say as I was exploring reviews last night I was intrigued to find the Sonos One deal. Getting two speakers for true stereo for the same price as the HomePod seems hard to pass up.

If the two speakers do indeed sound better than the single HomePod - they would be.

 

[Ted Todorov]

I've got a 5 channel audio system that blows the audio quality doors off anything the size of the HomePod. So, despite being an good Apple customer I see that this device just isn't designed for me. I think the company may find that's the case with a good portion of their existing customer base.

That’s exactly my situation, which is why I’m not buying one either. But I don’t think we are the majority. Most people these days don’t have receivers and high quality speakers. The era has changed - and I suspect Apple’s is fairly well informed of what their customer base has

 

[TonyD]

But, luckily for Apple, I'm an audiophile first so I'll be picking one up shortly

One so one speaker audio devices are considered audiophile?

 

[dpippel]

That’s exactly my situation, which is why I’m not buying one either. But I don’t think we are the majority. Most people these days don’t have receivers and high quality speakers. The era has changed - and I suspect Apple’s is fairly well informed of what their customer base has

I'm not so sure about how well informed Apple is about their customer base. But, we will see. The HomePod may be a hit, or it may be another Mac Pro. Only time and the market will tell.

 

[Carlo_M]

One so one speaker audio devices are considered audiophile?

I was gonna be a smart alec but I’ll refrain. That’s not at all what I meant by that. What I meant was that being an audiophile I place sound quality above smart functionality. So since I’m in the market for a small mobile speaker that I still want to sound good, the HomePod is more appealing to me than an Alexa speaker. Which my apartment mate has and sounds anemic to me.

 

[TonyD]

I figured that’s what you were getting at but you did use the word.
These small one speaker devices aren’t something I need to sound great.
I have several Dots but not the bigger Echo device so I have no idea how it sounds.

$350 for one of these is a ton of money to me for a one speaker system.

I realize people get these due to their living requirements.