The HomePod has landed

I wonder if this is related to the HomePod?

Hard to think the HomePod debut splash/press and marketing push was not a factor in this recent bump. Certainly it was....but what do I know?

Heh, looking back, I proffed (conservatively I thought) 2 years ago that AM would have 50M subs/trials out of the gate. Rekon me as a long time and wool-died on-demand streamer, fair to say my rosey colored glasses superseded market judgement at the time. :cool:

In any event, AM is following the fervor with the on-demand "explosion". So no big surprise for me there.

:lurk:
 
Hard to think the HomePod debut splash/press and marketing push was not a factor in this recent bump. Certainly it was....but what do I know?

Heh, looking back, I proffed (conservatively I thought) 2 years ago that AM would have 50M subs/trials out of the gate. Rekon me as a long time and wool-died on-demand streamer, fair to say my rosey colored glasses superseded market judgement at the time. :cool:

In any event, AM is following the fervor with the on-demand "explosion". So no big surprise for me there.

:lurk:
If I was a betting man, I would say the faster growth was solely related to the HomePod. I expect a new marketing push when Airplay 2 is released and another during the holidays.

LOL At least you own up to the inaccurate projection. I would love to see Bloomberg lead with their incorrect statements. :rflmao:

The problem with Apple's marketing for Apple Music is that they have never spent much time showing the convenience of using Siri with their devices. The HomePod gives them that ability, but it has hardly been exploited. They could show Siri being used for music across all their platforms, but they haven't bothered. They would rather use celebrities and marketing that supposedly makes you feel something rather than just pointing out what the service/product actually does. Hard to argue that it hasn't been successful across their product lines, but they could still have a commercial or two showing features.

The main benefit they have over Spotify is voice control across numerous Apple products. Without a compelling reason, people aren't just going to leave their music service of choice. When AM first came out, I mentioned that they did not have a freemium model to start the kiddies and the mildly interested off on their service, while Spotify does. This gives Spotify a huge advantage of getting people on the platform and then turning them into paying customers as their disposable income or interest increases. Apple isn't interested in that market, so they will have to be content with being second to Spotify while they both continue to grow subscribers.
 
Well done HomePod ad, though not nearly as clever as those “Alexa lost her voice” ads, which are hilarious.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/7/17089920/apple-homepod-ad-fka-twigs-spike-jonze-anderson-paak

Apple’s ads never have had their indented effect on me. Guess they’re not targeting grumpy old men, lol.
One of my favorite ads from Apple in a while, which isn't saying a whole lot. I did like the iPad commercial with the young girl which showed many ways to use the product....until the cringe worthy ending of "what's a computer?"

As you mentioned, they are typically targeting people to bring into their ecosystem and that is mainly the younger generations. Amazon's marketing is probably more for those that are older and have homes with Hue Bulbs and Wemo switches. I also prefer Amazon's advertising.
 
A pretty good review of the HomePod from an Apple fanboy's viewpoint. I can understand the Apple love by non geeks (like my extended family), but for me, every one of his points simply fall flat. I can do everything he hopes the HomePod will do in the future today without the Apple lock in. Horses for courses.

https://9to5mac.com/2018/03/09/review-homepod/
 
While I'm happy for the OP, I really don't like the idea of devices listening to me. Yeah, I know, my cellphone has a passive mic, blah blah blah, but some of the horror stories I've read about these type devices I find to be too intrusive for me, personally.

Glad you enjoy it, sounds like a cool gadget. Anything that results in a more entertaining listening experience is fine by me.
 
While I'm happy for the OP, I really don't like the idea of devices listening to me. Yeah, I know, my cellphone has a passive mic, blah blah blah, but some of the horror stories I've read about these type devices I find to be too intrusive for me, personally.

Glad you enjoy it, sounds like a cool gadget. Anything that results in a more entertaining listening experience is fine by me.
What horror story have you read about the HomePod? Apple and Google and Amazon all have different ways they handle data. So if you heard a horror story about Google/Amazon, it it irrelevant for Apple's device.
 
What horror story have you read about the HomePod? Apple and Google and Amazon all have different ways they handle data. So if you heard a horror story about Google/Amazon, it it irrelevant for Apple's device.

While I admit I hadn't even heard of this item until this thread, and am still a bit uncertain what it even is, I think recent findings about other items of this ilk and the recent Facebook issue brings to light an altogether darker side to that most hackneyed of phrases, "Convenience".

I mean, really.....write a damn letter and mail it. Give someone a call. Play a record. Or cd. Or cassette.

wait....sorry, wrong crowd. That's for later tonight on the docks. Secret word is "potato". :p:crazy::rflmao:
 
While I admit I hadn't even heard of this item until this thread, and am still a bit uncertain what it even is, I think recent findings about other items of this ilk and the recent Facebook issue brings to light an altogether darker side to that most hackneyed of phrases, "Convenience".

I mean, really.....write a damn letter and mail it. Give someone a call. Play a record. Or cd. Or cassette.

wait....sorry, wrong crowd. That's for later tonight on the docks. Secret word is "potato". :p:crazy::rflmao:

What does Facebook have to do with the HomePod? The answer is nothing. Facebook and Google make their money by learning your habits and selling targeted ads. Apple doesn’t have that model, so the point is irrelevant.

Yes, people like convenience. No argument there. For me, playing CDs or records ( or writing a letter) is mainly a butt sitting venture. The HomePod is for music when I am making something in the kitchen or doing housework. I turn on the main system when I am sitting down.
 
Yep, these things are the best kitchen radios ever! Weather, multiple timers, news, music, recipes, etc, on demand. The HomePod sounds better than any kitchen radio ever did, too.
 
What does Facebook have to do with the HomePod? The answer is nothing. Facebook and Google make their money by learning your habits and selling targeted ads. Apple doesn’t have that model, so the point is irrelevant.

Yes, people like convenience. No argument there. For me, playing CDs or records ( or writing a letter) is mainly a butt sitting venture. The HomePod is for music when I am making something in the kitchen or doing housework. I turn on the main system when I am sitting down.

You seem to have taken great umbrage, when none was meant, sir. I think what I actually meant to convey is best summed up in chicks sig. And are you really stating that Apple doesn't use that same business model of learning your habits and then selling to that??

You have taken my comments too seriously.
 
Yeah, say what you want about Apple and all their "closed ecosystem" stuff, but in the wake of what is happening right now they're looking pretty good when it comes to this topic.
Tough go much further without the politics coming out, though.

Back to the pod.
I've been thinking of a kitchen sound setup for years, but have never bothered getting to it. I have a really small kitchen, so putting even a 'system' in there doesn't work.
I usually just fire up the living room system if I'm spending any amount of time cooking, but that doesn't work if others are out there and don't want to hear the music.
I'm no Apple fan boy, but I like iphones. I don't have AM(for now), and I'm not much of a "Hey Siri, hey Alexa" person. Not sure if a lot of what the pod brings would be worth it to me. Good sound is really appealing, though.

Maybe I should just wire up the living room speakers with long wire, and pull them towards the kitchen.:rflmao:
 
Yeah, say what you want about Apple and all their "closed ecosystem" stuff, but in the wake of what is happening right now they're looking pretty good when it comes to this topic.
Tough go much further without the politics coming out, though.

Back to the pod.
I've been thinking of a kitchen sound setup for years, but have never bothered getting to it. I have a really small kitchen, so putting even a 'system' in there doesn't work.
I usually just fire up the living room system if I'm spending any amount of time cooking, but that doesn't work if others are out there and don't want to hear the music.
I'm no Apple fan boy, but I like iphones. I don't have AM(for now), and I'm not much of a "Hey Siri, hey Alexa" person. Not sure if a lot of what the pod brings would be worth it to me. Good sound is really appealing, though.

Maybe I should just wire up the living room speakers with long wire, and pull them towards the kitchen.:rflmao:
I know Apple will talk about these differences when they are making a keynote speech, but I think they need to use it more in their marketing because a lot of people are under the assumption that all tech giants operate the same way....which is far from the truth.

From Tim Cook when discussing Facebook's latest issues:

"We care about the user experience. And we're not going to traffic in your personal life," Cook said of Apple. "I think it's an invasion of privacy."

"Privacy to us is a human right. It's a civil liberty," he said. "n something that is unique to America, you know, this is like freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and privacy is right up there for us."

"The truth is we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer. If our customer was our product, we could make a ton of money," he said. "We've elected not to do that. Because ... our products are iPhones and iPads and Macs and HomePods and the Watch, etc., and if we can convince you to buy one, we'll make a little bit of money, right?

"But you are not our product," said Cook. "You are our customer. You are a jewel."


https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/10/apple-ceo-tim-cook-on-the-importance-of-consumer-privacy.html

For me, the HomePod is a casual device that I use for background music when doing other things. While $350 isn't exactly cheap, it isn't really expensive given the sound quality, convenience, and size that makes it perfect for the location I am using it. I was already using Apple Music, so it just gave me more options than the Dot connected to a speaker I already had in the kitchen. I prefer it for music to the Dot connected to the speaker for another reason, as well. It simply hears you a lot better over music, so you don't have to get closer or scream at it when you want to change the music to something else. The Dot is great at a lot of other things, so it really just depends on whether you can live with Amazon's privacy issues compared to Apple and whether you will actually use any of those things that the Dot does that the HomePod doesn't. I still use both daily.

One other issue with the Dot is that if you want to connect it directly to a speaker, you have at least 3 cables. You have the power for the speaker, the power for the dot, and the aux cable. I have the HomePod sitting between two rooms on a half wall, and I don't even like seeing the power cable. The Dot setup has to sit on my kitchen counter where I can hide cables behind the toaster, but that means it can't be used to much effect in the living room area. When I want to hear it in there, I have to Blutooth to a separate setup. Not ideal for casual background music.
 
You know that Apple uses/has used Amazon, Microsoft and Google for its cloud services, right? Lol.

Still, they do say they protect your data, rather than base their business model on it. I don’t mind the ad targeting that the others use my web browsing habits to figure out, but the data sharing has definitely gotten out of hand. Default needs to be “zero sharing”, I shouldn’t need to opt out.
 
You know that Apple uses/has used Amazon, Microsoft and Google for its cloud services, right? Lol.

Still, they do say they protect your data, rather than base their business model on it. I don’t mind the ad targeting that the others use my web browsing habits to figure out, but the data sharing has definitely gotten out of hand. Default needs to be “zero sharing”, I shouldn’t need to opt out.

"Apple has confirmed that Google Cloud Platform is one of at least two third-party services it relies upon for storing encrypted iCloud account data, which it notes doesn't include any user-identifying information."

"The encrypted chunks of the file are stored, without any user-identifying information, using third-party storage services, such as S3 and Google Cloud Platform."


https://www.macrumors.com/2018/02/26/icloud-uses-google-cloud-platform/

Still the same model for privacy from the Tim Cook quote above. Very different from Google and Facebook which store user identifying info with the data and then use that information for selling ads (ie make you a revenue source).
 
It’s just some kind of new gadget with inferior sound to play with until something newer is made for a profit. Just like the kitchen radio...it’s just something to listen to !!
 
It’s just some kind of new gadget with inferior sound to play with until something newer is made for a profit. Just like the kitchen radio...it’s just something to listen to !!
Yes, they want to make a profit. No, it sounds superior to a kitchen radio and pretty much anything else with the same footprint. All speakers are just something to listen to. There are varying degrees of how good they sound and how much space they take up. In this case, you also have the convenience of Airplay and Apple Music direct control.
 
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