Looks like they're having some issues getting their smart speaker out the door. Not long if not now that Google and Amazon/Sonos will have this market sewed up.
http://rainnews.com/apple-drops-out-and-heres-why-as-smart-speakers-enter-crucial-holiday-season/
I doubt it unless one of them adds Airplay 2 voice control features and Apple Music with voice control.
The market for any of these devices is still pretty small. I have three Dots and a Spot preordered (not to mention a newly added Google Home Mini) and I still have an interest in the HomePod for the two features I mentioned above. I have read that Amazon is estimated to have sold around 15 million Echoes. Small potatoes in a world with billions of people, and since many people that have them, may have more than one, the number of homes these are in is probably a fraction compared to the (estimated) number they have sold.
Not to mention homes like mine that will have devices from more than one company. It is like saying that someone has an iPhone 4, so they should have no interest in a Samsung Note 8. The products themselves are so different that having one (even if they are both in the smart phone category) doesn't rule out the future purchase of the other.
Of course, I don't have a crystal ball. However, I wouldn't bet against Apple. Just to put some
perspective on their success, let's look at their current products:
- The most profitable smartphone
- The most profitable tablet
- The most profitable laptop
- The most profitable desktop
- The most profitable smartwatch
- The most profitable pair of wireless headphones
- The most profitable streaming TV box
The Apple Brand is popular and makes a lot of money. Of course, if analysts are correct, I am doing better in this segment of the market than Amazon who was
estimated to have lost $300 million in 2016. How we measure Apple's success compared to companies giving the product away at a loss is a little tricky. It is the old market share versus profitability argument that has been around at least since Apple started selling iPhones. I would be very surprised if Apple didn't have the most profitable smart speaker on the market come the end of 2018. Guess time will tell.