AFP, San Francisco :
Apple’s new HomePod speaker may be music to the ears of its loyal fans, but how much it can crank up volume in the smart speaker market remains to be heard.
Apple unveiled its long-awaited HomePod at its annual developers conference taking place this week in the heart of Silicon Valley, enticing lovers of its products with a high-end offering in a market dominated by lower-priced devices from Amazon and Google .
Analysts are yet to be convinced that HomePod will rock the smart speaker market the way iPhones came to rule the smartphone world and iPods dominated MP3 players.
“If we are comparing this to Apple’s past successes, it doesn’t fit that model,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group.
“This product is much more of a me-too offering.”
There was no overwhelming differentiation in HomePod, according to the analyst. But he saw a big negative-it is more expensive.
HomePod, infused with machine smarts by Siri digital assistant, will be priced at $349 when it begins shipping in December in the United States, Australia and Britain.
HomePod will take on Amazon Echo and Google Home, which have momentum in the arena of voice-controlled speakers capable of controlling smart appliances, fetching content from the internet and more.
Amazon sells Echo devices for $179, and smaller “Dot” versions for $50. Google sells Home for $180, promoting the smart speakers with discounts.
Apple played up the rich speaker quality of HomePod, and synched it with the company’s music service that boasts 27 million subscribers.
Apple vice president Phil Schiller said the company’s Siri team tuned the virtual assistant as a “musicologist” that learns the tastes of listeners and gets songs from the internet cloud.
The speaker has the “power to rock the house,” according to Schiller, and the aim is to make HomePod a voice-commanded assistant for news, messages, weather, traffic, home controls and more.
Apple’s new HomePod speaker may be music to the ears of its loyal fans, but how much it can crank up volume in the smart speaker market remains to be heard.
Apple unveiled its long-awaited HomePod at its annual developers conference taking place this week in the heart of Silicon Valley, enticing lovers of its products with a high-end offering in a market dominated by lower-priced devices from Amazon and Google .
Analysts are yet to be convinced that HomePod will rock the smart speaker market the way iPhones came to rule the smartphone world and iPods dominated MP3 players.
“If we are comparing this to Apple’s past successes, it doesn’t fit that model,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group.
“This product is much more of a me-too offering.”
There was no overwhelming differentiation in HomePod, according to the analyst. But he saw a big negative-it is more expensive.
HomePod, infused with machine smarts by Siri digital assistant, will be priced at $349 when it begins shipping in December in the United States, Australia and Britain.
HomePod will take on Amazon Echo and Google Home, which have momentum in the arena of voice-controlled speakers capable of controlling smart appliances, fetching content from the internet and more.
Amazon sells Echo devices for $179, and smaller “Dot” versions for $50. Google sells Home for $180, promoting the smart speakers with discounts.
Apple played up the rich speaker quality of HomePod, and synched it with the company’s music service that boasts 27 million subscribers.
Apple vice president Phil Schiller said the company’s Siri team tuned the virtual assistant as a “musicologist” that learns the tastes of listeners and gets songs from the internet cloud.
The speaker has the “power to rock the house,” according to Schiller, and the aim is to make HomePod a voice-commanded assistant for news, messages, weather, traffic, home controls and more.
