Apple's Home Pod Misses Critical Debut Date

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.
 
Yep, you are welcome.;) If I saved you from betting against Apple, you can thank me later.:beerchug:
Me? Bet against their bank roll? LOL

Allow me to borrow this fairly apropos story from The Dan...

"Only A Fool Would Say That".
A world become one
Of salads and sun
Only a fool would say that
A boy with a plan
A natural man
Wearing a white stetson hat
Unhand that gun begone
There's no one to fire upon
If he's holding it high
He's telling a lie

I heard it was you
Talkin' 'bout a world
Where all is free
It just couldn't be
And only a fool would say that

The man in the street
Draggin' his feet
Don't want to hear the bad news
Imagine your face
There is his place
Standing inside his brown shoes
You do his nine to five
Drag yourself home half alive
And there on the screen
A man with a dream


I heard it was you
Talkin' 'bout a world
Where all is free
It just couldn't be
And only a fool would say that

Anybody on the street
Has murder in his eyes
You feel no pain
And you're younger
Then you realize

I heard it was you
Talkin' 'bout a world
Where all is free
It just couldn't be
And only a fool would say that

:music:


Telling lyrics that swing both ways, yes? Seriously though, it's hard to argue that Apple isn't watching/missing a very big banana of users ripen. Will it kill them financially? Nope...but that wasn't the real gist of the article. It was "just sayin"... and I happen to agree.
 
Me? Bet against theirbank roll? LOL
It isn't just their bank roll. It is their hundreds of millions of satisfied customers, their brand and how their ecosystem ties into all of their devices.

Seriously though, it's hard to argue that Apple isn't watching/missing a very big banana of users ripen
The argument has been made by others besides me:

And although its competition has had a head start — the Amazon Echo launched in 2014 for Amazon Prime members and the Google Home was released last year — experts in voice and visual search said instead of being late to the party, Apple could raise the bar like it did for digital music players when it launched the iPod, or smartphones, as it did with the iPhone.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tn-apple-new-product-20170605-htmlstory.html

"Apple's not late to the Home Assistant market. Because there isn't one. Yet."

https://www.imore.com/apples-not-late-home-assistant-market-because-there-isnt-one-yet
 
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Just a funny but similar article from a few years ago (I am sure there are more on many of their "late" arriving products):

"While the above is compelling, Apple won’t be bringing its watch to market until early 2015. This gives other smart watchmakers plenty of time to enhance the features set of their own products, especially those powered by Android Wear. Currently, there are around 10 companies with logos displayed on Google’s Android Wear page. Each of them is solely committed to building watches powered by Android Wear.

The initial round of Android Wear-powered smart watches delivers interesting functionality. This includes the ability to talk to your watch and send messages, ask questions and “get stuff done” (Google’s words). With Android Wear developers’ ability to utilize sensors, notifications, voice actions and data transfers, the Apple Watch could be yesterday’s news by the time it hits markets next year."

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140920022208-146815-will-the-apple-watch-be-too-late-to-market

:jump:
 
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You could make an argument for both sides. The same arguments could be made for/against the internet, not driving a newer car, not using a smart phone, a computer, etc.

Amazon and Google claim they only save what you say after the keyword. Both allow you to see and delete the information they record. If you don’t believe them, then you should definitely not buy one of these devices. No argument from me.
 
As a side note, the article linked in that thread mentions that Amazon handed over the Echo recordings they had in a murder case. The article fails to mention that they only did that AFTER the defendant gave them permission to hand over the recordings. Amazon was prepared to fight the request.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/07/tech/amazon-echo-alexa-bentonville-arkansas-murder-case/index.html

Also, the murder charge was dropped, so apparently the Echo recordings didn’t help.
 
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I have seen this:

"Sonos also confirmed that its wireless speakers will be controlled by any Siri device like the iPhone and iPad thanks to AirPlay 2 support. This feature should also enable any content available on iOS not currently available on Sonos to be played over Sonos speakers (like Apple Podcasts, Overcast, etc.)."

I was referring to controlling Siri via voice from the speaker.....not needing to track down your phone to control it....like you can do now with any Airplay or Bluetooth speaker. That being said, if Sonos had Airplay to begin with, I probably would own at least one of their speakers now. So I do think it will be a nice feature.

Also by Airplay 2 voice control, I was referring to telling the speaker to play music in zone 3 (or whatever you name the areas) which has Airplay 2 speakers/AppleTVs.... including Sonos with Airplay 2 support :).
 
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Bloomberg writer: Apple iPhone won’t make long-term mark; will only appeal to a few gadget freaks

I respect Mark Gurman's ability to know what is coming from Apple in the future due to inside contacts, but people at Bloomberg were making similar arguments about the original iPhone in 2007. I haven't know Gurman to be an analyst for predicting sales. However, his points are misleading or wrong. When the first iPhone arrived it had less features than the Palm Treo (unlike the claim by Gurman in the video) so I can see where Bloomberg was coming from, even if they were very wrong about their predictions. I already posted an analyst's article discussing the shortfalls of the original Apple Watch, so Gurman was wrong about that, as well. The thing that makes the Apple Watch the most profitable smartwatch on earth isn't that it did numerous things that Android watches weren't doing, it is the fact that it is an Apple product in the Apple ecosystem.

I agree more with the The AppleByte. Apple promised the device for December and didn't deliver. That is obviously not a good thing. As he mentioned, it wasn't a good thing with the Airpods,either. He also mocked the look of the Airpods when they came out. That is his schtick. I subscribe to "his" channel and he has a "Bad Apple" in nearly every video. Last I checked, the Airpods were selling very well despite his points about them being late to market.

I will wait and see. If people just want a device in the house to order pizza, they have the chance to do that for $30 or less. They don't need a $350 Apple device. Heck, you can do almost everything that the Echo can do and more from a smartphone, so it isn't necessary to spend $30, either. It is a convenience to many (including myself), but I think Apple wants to make it about the sound technology and decent sounding music (in a small footprint).
 
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Apple has announced that the HomePod will be available to order soon:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/01/homepod-arrives-february-9-available-to-order-this-friday/

"HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday"

I won't be buying one right out of the gate. I want to see some reviews first. Also, one of the main things I want to do is control Airplay 2 devices and it looks like that feature and others won't be available at launch:

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/23/homepods-multi-room-audio-not-launch/
 
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