Roger Fingas
Although it has a following similar to other high end smart speakers, the Apple HomePod is still being eclipsed in the U.S. market by cheaper offerings by Amazon and Google, newly-published survey data suggests.
The HomePod accounts for 4 percent of speakers, Strategy Analytics said on Monday. The figure is based on a poll of 1,011 smartspeaker owners conducted in July and August.
The three leading devices were the Amazon Echo, the Echo Dot, and the Google Home, at 23, 21, and 8 percent, respectively. The HomePod effectively tied with several other Echo models, namely the Plus, Spot, Show, and Dot Kids Edition.
Apple has so far been silent on HomePod sales beyond maintaining a positive outlook, refusing to share exact numbers. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimates published in August claimed that the company controlled a 6 percent share of a market said to be around 50 million installed speakers in the U.S.
Apple's main obstacle has likely been price. The HomePod is $349, nearly $300 more than a third-generation Echo Dot, and $249 more than a standard Echo. While the HomePod provides much higher audio quality, Amazon's prices make it possible to scatter smartspeakers throughout a home.
Amazon's Alexa voice assistant is also typically considered more useful than Siri. The only music service natively supported by Siri, for instance, is Apple Music, whereas Alexa users have access to Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn, and others.
Apple has been rumored as working on a cheaper HomePod, which could could conceivably be announced at an Oct. 30 press event.
Charles Martin
Amber Neely
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AppleInsider Staff
Malcolm Owen
Oliver Haslam
22 Comments
I've tried the 3rd generation Echo Dot and it's horrible. It sounds like a 2nd generation Dot under a pillow, only louder. The new treble and bass controls make little difference. It's the way the 3rd-gen is constructed/encased.
This subject has been topical for the last year and I can't believe that Apple isn't stepping up to the plate with better functionality for the HomePod. There is a general consensus from consumers/reviewers/press that the sound quality is measurably better than the competition but at a high price point. Excellent device but too expensive. I believe that Apple has dropped the ball on this issue. Clearly the growing family of Amazon Echo products layered with Alexa is sprinting to the lead and in my opinion justifiably so even though I have a strong bias to the Apple ecosystem of hardware and software. The latest package of echo plus and Echo sub is closing the acoustic gap with sound improvements and functionality that the HomePod lacks..............It is a case, albeit a rare one for Apple that smacks of poor strategic management of this products evolution.
Peter
I wish I could say otherwise but HomePod's voice recognition (not skills, basic recognition) is deeply lacking. Some reviews have talked about HomePod's great ability to hear through ambient noise and music but we just haven't been able to get HomePod to hear us consistently. Sometimes it's great; often it's not. And, I don't mean recognizing commands (although that is also lacking) but simply hearing "Hey Siri". We know we are speaking clearly enough because we have an iPad and usually an iPhone in the same room. We often don't see the recognition waveform on HomePod and yet the iPad recognizes the wake command. Siri skills and comprehension are also lacking of course but I assume that will improve with software. I'm concerned that the hardware "ears" are not that great (although I imagine a lot of that is also software that might be improved). Finally, music control on HomePod is puzzling - HomePod is inherently linked to an iOS device and yet there is no way to look on that iOS device for an "up next", history, or other obvious data bits. Which is super weird as I think HomePod's focus is consciously music and not "all-around-assistant". Given this focus, I can understand not playing games or ordering pizza (both of which are silly anyway) but why not at least offer some really high-quality controls in the Home App? If useful to gauge this comment, we have a Google Home in the same room that has near perfect recognition (from a worse location - when HomePod was in the same spot, it was almost useless) and Echos in other rooms that seem pretty good as well (but have recently been rebooting and dropping network connections; they are old examples from the original invitation-only days).
The title of the article says "Google Home Max", but when siting percentages, says "Google Home"....what speaker are they referring to? the Max or the cheaper google home?