Roger Fingas
The HomePod took 6 percent of the install base for U.S. smartspeakers in the December quarter, new research data claims, illustrating the uphill battle Apple faces versus Amazon and Google in an emergent marketplace flooded with cheaper alternatives.
Of a calculated 66 million smartspeakers in U.S. homes by the end of 2018, about 3.96 million were HomePods, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners indicated on Tuesday. Apple doesn't release official shipment numbers for the HomePod however — instead, CIRP's figure is based on a survey of 500 Americans with a HomePod, Amazon Echo, or Google Home.
Amazon and Google are well ahead by that metric, with 70 and 24 percent shares respectively.
"Amazon and Google both have broad model lineups, ranging from basic to high-end, with even more variants from Amazon," wrote CIRP co-founder Josh Lowitz. "Apple of course has only its premium-priced HomePod, and likely won't gain significant share until it offers an entry-level product closer to Echo Dot and Home mini."
The Dot and Mini are each about $49, making them easy to pick up for people mostly interested in voice queries and smarthome control. The HomePod has far superior sound but comes in a single model, sold for $349 by Apple and somewhat less at places like Best Buy.
For nearly a year rumors have circulated of a new, lower-cost HomePod model. If it comes to fruition the product might sell for between $150 and $200, and/or as a Siri-capable Beats product.
Aside from its cost, the HomePod has been criticized as too tightly dependent on the Apple ecosystem. It requires an iOS device to be configured, and the only native music service supported is Apple Music, whereas Echo and Home users can choose from services like Spotify and Pandora. Echo owners even recently gained Apple Music as another option.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Sponsored Content
45 Comments
What a dumb comparison. Homepod was in development before the release of any smartspeaker. It was developed as a high quality Bluetooth speaker to enjoy room-filling music.
How is Homepod supposed to compete with products that sell for Free-20 bucks?
This metric is just another excuse to call Apple a "failure".
Worshipping at the Church Market Share doesn't really interest me, as long as the device continues to delight. For the size and price, the HP is hard to beat IMO. I tried the larger and more expensive Sonos Beam, we A:B tested it (blindly for my SO) and felt the HP sounded better, both for music and dialog. So for music and movies, HomeKit commands (it hears me from two rooms), and the normal, mundane digital assistant tasks, HP is great. If they continue to improve Siri stuff, great. If not, no biggie.
This is not to say its without faults. One annoying UX bug -- if you set the HP as your output device on your Apple TV, it will remember it, which is great. But, then when the ATV is sleeping and you ask the HP to start playing a radio station, it won't be able to...not until you un-set it from the ATV, which you can do by setting it as the output for your iPhone or iPad. Weird little problem and work-around, to be sure. Have submitted, hope they fix it sometime.
(I'd also love to see the HP developed into more home theater use cases, but if they don't and leave that to Sonos, I'll live...clearly, as so far I'm happy with a single HP for my content viewing)
I won't have any interest in this device until Siri sees some major improvements.