Amber Neely
Apple hires a former staff member as HomePod Software Head in hopes of competing with best-selling smart speaker Amazon Echo.
Afrooz Family returns to Apple to head the HomePod Software department. Family worked with Apple from 2012 to 2018, first as in Audio Applications and then as a Senior Audio Engineer.
According to Bloomberg, Family left Apple to co-found audio startup Sync with former Apple Industrial designer Christopher Stringer. He left Syng in early 2021 after helping to develop the startup's Cell Alpha, dubbed as the world's first Triphonic speaker.
The new HomePod Software Head received his undergraduate degree, a BA in music, from Berkley, and his master's degree in Music, Science, and Technology from Stanford University.
Apple has struggled to make a significant dent in the smart speaker market, which is dominated by speakers put out by Amazon and Google. Researchers have suggested more than two-thirds of smart speakers in the US are Amazon-branded, while Google accounts for a quarter. Apple comes in a distant third.
In March, Apple discontinued its full-size HomePod to focus on its diminutive HomePod mini, a $99 smart speaker that was announced in Fall 2020.
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
44 Comments
Just fix siri make her the best smart assistant drives me nuts when she cant do what alexa can
but the speaker is great product many of my work colleagues are impressed with the quality of the product but siri lets it down
IMO, I think it was silly to drop the HomePod and just focus on the $50 speaker market with a $99 speaker. Why can't Apple do both? The regular HomePod was just way too expensive. I own 2 and I only purchased them because I got them on sale for $199 both times. I think they work great, but they're just too expensive. Apple can't always get away with its pricing schemes in every market they try to enter.
How about fixing the always disconnected issue.
What that tech media never mentions in these comparisons: Amazon viewed the smart speaker as a way to increase impulse purchasing by their customers. Did that happen? Nope.
I'm normally a 100% Apple guy, but the three smart speakers in my home are all Alexa-based because Siri is useless for too many things. It's that simple. And better HomePod software isn't going to change that. My impression is that Apple's Siri division basically slept through the last decade while Amazon left them in the dust when it comes to Alexa connectivity to the internet of things. Building a better speaker doesn't matter when it comes with a dumber assistant.