iPhone owners more excited about HomePod or Beats than Amazon Echo, survey finds

Interest among iPhone users in the upcoming HomePod speaker is greater than that of the Apple Watch prior to its launch, and more users are planning on buying Apple-produced speakers than Amazon Echo devices.

Circulated by analyst firm Raymond James and first reported by CNBC, 14 percent of iPhone owners were planning on purchasing the HomePod. Also according to the firm, following announcement of the Apple Watch and before shipping the device, 7 percent of iPhone users were looking to buy the wearable.

Raymond James also points out that combined with the 5 percent of iPhone owners actively looking to buy a Beats-branded speaker, that Apple tops the 16 percent looking to buy an Amazon Echo.

In June, a differently aimed survey showed that of 2200 adults, 33 percent said that they had interest in the HomePod. But, only 9 percent would probably purchase one, given the opportunity.

Among Apple users, the purchase intent rose to 17 percent, similar to the analyst's note from Friday.

Apple's HomePod was revealed at the 2017 WWDC. The HomePod is under 7 inches tall and wrapped in a 3D mesh acoustic fabric. In addition to the A8 chip that powers the device, it has 7 tweeters and a dynamic modeling subwoofer.

Features of the device beyond music-focused Siri integration include realtime acoustic modeling, audio beam-forming, and multi-channel echo cancellation.

46 Comments

zimmermann 340 comments · 9 Years

About 7 years ago

Because of the huge installed base of customers with big pockets and a dedicated frame of mind anything Apple throws at them will be quickly adopted. What can go wrong?

dachar 330 comments · 11 Years

I purchased an Amazon Echo when it first came out in the U.K. It was unable to connect to my British Telecom wifi router, which Amazon said they knew about. BT supply about 1 in 3 routers in the U.K, which is a massive amount of lost customers. I returned my Echo to receive a refund. Hopefully Apple's HomePod will not have the same issues and will simply work straight out of the box.

Rayz2016 6957 comments · 8 Years

dachar said:

I purchased an Amazon Echo when it first came out in the U.K. It was unable to connect to my British Telecom wifi router, which Amazon said they knew about. BT supply about 1 in 3 routers in the U.K, which is a massive amount of lost customers. I returned my Echo to receive a refund. Hopefully Apple's HomePod will not have the same issues and will simply work straight out of the box.

Mmmm.

Amazon would probably fix the problem, if BT customers didn't replace the supplied router with one that works as soon as their service goes live.

macxpress 5902 comments · 16 Years

zimmermann said:

Because of the huge installed base of customers with big pockets and a dedicated frame of mind anything Apple throws at them will be quickly adopted. What can go wrong?

I think we've seen where just because it has an Apple logo on it doesn't mean people will buy it. There have been products that have failed for one reason or another...some of them being price. I'd say people buy it because its simply a better product so its worth the extra money. This isn't some cheapass speaker that just purchases things from Amazon and plays music.

jdgaz 406 comments · 9 Years

Our first HomePod will go in the master bath. If that works out well and syncs timing wise to the Marantz receiver output in the family room then the living room will get a pair. Then hopefully Apple will launch a weatherproof option and the patio gets a couple.