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HomePod’s Slow Growth

Posted on July 9, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: HomePod has 4% ion the smart speaker market and may reach 10% by 2022.

Before Apple introduced the iPod, there were plenty of portable MP3 players available. What made the iPod so useful was its integration with iTunes, which Apple made available on both PCs and Macs. This made it easy to transfer and organize music on an iPod quickly and easily in ways that other MP3 players did not offer. The iPod may have been late to the portable MP3 player market, but they eventually dominated through the combination of iTunes with an iPod.

Now Apple is late to the smart speaker market with HomePod. Even worse, Apple missed last Christmas by delaying the HomePod and offering the HomePod at a higher price than rival smart speakers. That means Google and Amazon have a huge head start in the smart speaker market. Siri is still considered second-best when compared to Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s voice assistant. Given HomePod’s late start, feeble Siri support, and high price, can the HomePod ever take over the smart speaker market?

The answer is yes, but only if Apple’s HomeKit framework becomes more popular. Smart speakers are fine by themselves, but relatively niche products. Talking to your speaker to get the news or weather may be nice, but it’s not a necessary feature that most people absolutely need. Beyond voice recognition, smart speakers will only become useful when paired with smart homes, and this is where HomePod has a huge advantage.

Google and Amazon are focusing on getting their smart speakers into homes to control lights, temperatures, or even appliances. The big problem is that only Apple’s HomeKit focuses on security to minimize the risk of hackers virtually breaking into a smart home. Think of the difference between Android and iOS where Android is open to the point where malware can easily infect android devices, especially given most people’s ignorance of basic security measures. Now imagine needing anti-virus software to keep your smart home from getting infected. That will likely minimize the appeal of a smart home.

First, smart homes need to offer compelling features that existing “dumb” homes do not in the same way that a smartphone is far more useful than a traditional landline phone that’s fixed in one place. Second, once smart homes find a compelling feature, people must worry about security. Can hackers listen in and record conversations? Unlock a home? Turn the lights on and off? Getting your smart home hacked won’t be as scary as getting your computer data stolen, but it can still be unnerving to know someone can control your home and listen in to your conversations without your knowledge. That alone can make a smart home far less appealing to most people.

A smart home needs a compelling advantage just like a wearable computer offers a huge advantage in tracking health data in real-time, which is simply not possible without a wearable computer. Until a smart home offers such a compelling advantage such as the numerous stories of the Apple Watch saving people’s lives by warning them in advance of changes in their health, a smart home will be a niche product and smart speakers will also be niche products.

HomePod may fare better than its rivals, but it will only succeed when smart homes succeed. If that never happens, then expect HomePod to remain a niche product that’s interesting but far less useful than Apple might want.

The HomePod Flop

Posted on April 12, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Music, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Sales of Apple’s HomePod have reportedly been slowing.

HomePod is a product looking for a solution. The idea of a smart speaker sounds appealing, letting you chat with a virtual assistant such as Amazon’s Echo, but the benefits of a smart speaker are low. That’s why Amazon’s Echo is so popular because the cost is so cheap so its limited functionality is fine. HomePod costs way more and offers superior audio quality, but that’s it. The huge problem with superior audio quality is that not everyone cares. Sometimes good enough audio quality is just fine.

HomePod is too limited to Apple products. If you want to connect HomePod to an ordinary stereo, it’s not easy to do. If you want superior audio quality, you can choose from multiple options that don’t necessarily limit themselves to Apple products. HomePod isn’t a bad product, but it’s true purpose is to serve as a hub for the smart home, and that’s not quite here yet.

The real usefulness of HomePod will appear when you can give voice commands to control a smart home. Until the popularity of the smart home arrives, smart speakers have far less utility. HomePod is essentially a product waiting for a future to arrive that may never come.

Apple is reportedly developing a lower cost HomePod but they also must improve Siri to be more useful and conversational. Then they need to further push HomeKit, their smart home framework. Until then, HomePod is simply an expensive speaker that’s nice, but too expensive for most people to try.

Years from now, HomePod may be useful, so it’s important for Apple to start developing HomePod now. Just as the Apple Watch gradually gained converts, so will HomePod gradually gain more users, but only if HomePod can demonstrate a single useful feature that everyone will want.

With the Apple Watch, that single useful feature was real-time health monitoring. With HomePod, this single useful feature will likely be a hub to a smart home. Now Apple just needs to wait for the smart home to become popular, much like fax machine makers couldn’t thrive until long-distance telephone calling became inexpensive.

HomePod isn’t a bad product, but it’s not a useful one for most people right now. Watch it over time. If smart homes become popular, then HomePod will become popular. If smart homes never become popular, then HomePod won’t have much purpose beyond acting as a fancy speaker.

HomePod, the First Real Smart Speaker

Posted on February 14, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: HomePod is getting rave reviews for its audio quality no matter where it’s placed in a room.

What’s the difference between a smart device and a dumb one? Until you see a smart device, you don’t realize how dumb the dumb device really is. Look at older Blackberry and Nokia “smart” phones and you’ll see that they pale in comparison to the features offered by the iPhone. Now people can’t imagine going back to those older Blackberry and Nokia phones because they’ve seen how a smartphone really should work.

The same is happening to speakers. Ordinary speakers offer varying levels of audio quality based on their components, but when you place them near a wall, near furniture, or in the middle of the room, their audio quality changes based on their surroundings. A smart speaker knows how to adjust to its surroundings and provide the same audio quality no matter what it’s location. that’s the real “smart” of a smart speaker like HomePod.

Now that HomePod has defined what a smart speaker should be like, all other speakers will pale in comparison. Amazon’s Echo may be cheaper but it won’t sound as good, so if you value audio quality, you’ll want a HomePod over an Amazon Echo. If you just want a cheap, portable speaker, the Amazon Echo will be just fine.

The second part of a smart speaker involves its ability to a accept voice commands. In this regard, HomePod’s Siri falls short of Amazon’s Alexa so that means Apple has some catching up to do. The question is whether Amazon’s Alexa can maintain its lead and whether Amazon wants to tackle the high-end smart speaker market with a smarter speaker that provides superior audio quality no matter what it’s position in a room.

Smart speakers of tomorrow will need to adjust to its surroundings and provide hands-free computing through voice commands. HomePod excels in audio quality but lags in voice commands. Amazon’s Echo excels in voice commands and price, but lags behind in audio quality. That means some people will buy an Amazon Echo for its price just as some people opt for an Android phone over an iPhone.

Most likely, HomePod will never sell as many units as Amazon, but HomePod will likely capture the larger profit share than Amazon because Amazon relies on volume to sell their Echo devices as a gateway to buying items on Amazon itself. HomePod makes money per unit and acts as a gateway to Apple Music.

In the end, Amazon Echo will likely win the market share but lag in profitability compared to HomePod. All HomePod has to do is make Siri smarter will links to the future smart home through HomeKit, and you’ll see HomePod gradually dominating the market while low cost rivals battle for the low-end market like Android in the smartphone category. HomePod has a bright future. It’s present just isn’t where it needs to be just yet unless you demand high audio quality.

The HomePod and the Smart Home

Posted on February 8, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware Leave a comment

What it is: HomePod is part of the smart home future, but the future isn’t here just yet.

Apple’s currently touting HomePod’s superior audio quality as a reason to buy it, but that’s not enough for most people to rush out and buy one. The real future of HomePod is the smart home. When people start connecting smart thermostats, lights, locks, and burglar alarms with a smart home, then HomePod will be the center of it all. That’s the ultimate purpose of HomePod, not as a superior speaker.

The trouble is that the smart home still isn’t here yet. Until people see the clear advantages of a smart home, HomePod won’t be a must-have buy like an iPhone. Instead, HomePod will be a niche product gradually evolving in capabilities and features until the smart home concept takes off. That means HomePod’s true potential won’t be realized for years.

Think of the Apple Watch’s evolution. Initially, people couldn’t figure out why you’d want one. Then people realized that real-time health monitoring was the strength of wearable computers like the Apple Watch. Now with cellular connectivity, the Apple Watch is becoming far more capable.

The same will likely hold true with HomePod. Watch the early adopters snap up HomePod for superior audio quality. Then the next generation of HomePod will offer far better Siri integration. By the third generation of HomePod, HomePod should finally start finding its true strength.

For most people, HomePod is a nice product but nothing crucial to own just yet. Wait a few years and when you start seeing clear advantages to using HomePod, that’s the time to buy a HomePod.

To read more about HomePod, click here.

A Glimpse at the Future with HomePod

Posted on January 27, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: HomePod is now on sale and early reviews are trickling in touting its major advantage.

Sometimes technology moves faster than people are ready for it. When the Apple Watch first appeared, people couldn’t figure out what they could use it for. Then they discovered that it’s primary advantage was real-time health monitoring. When the iPad first arrived, people dismissed it as a larger iPod touch, until they realized apps could do so much more, especially when paired with an optional external keyboard. The iPad has gradually evolved from a convenient tool to challenging laptops for many people. Given a choice between an iPad and a laptop, more and more people are seeing the advantages of the iPad over a traditional laptop.

Both the iPad and Apple Watch have incredible potential, but most of that potential was focused on the future. The Apple Watch has gone through multiple generations to become far more useful and the iPad has grown into the iPad Pro. That same future appears to be what the HomePod will offer.

Initially, everyone agrees the HomePod offers incredible audio quality. If that’s what you want, then the HomePod will deliver. However, the real potential of the HomePod is as a hub to control a HomeKit smart home. Since few people have a HomeKit smart home, that potential use for HomePod remains more potential than practical use today.

That means you can expect HomePod sales to grow steadily over the years. If you want a HomePod for superior audio quality, then get one. For the rest of us, wait and watch as the HomePod gradually evolves and as HomeKit gains more traction. Eventually, HomePod could be as indispensable as an iPhone, but until that day arrives, HomePod is a first generation product that will gradually embrace the world of hands-free computing until the rest of the world finally catches up to it.

HomePod is the future. Unfortunately, the future is not here yet.

To read more about HomePod, click here.

Can HomePod Succeed in the Smart Speaker Market?

Posted on January 26, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Apple is finally taking orders for HomePod, the smart speaker promised in December.

The smart speaker market is still growing, defined by Amazon’s low-cost Echo devices that cost as little as $49. The basic idea behind smart speakers is that they can do the following:

Accept voice commands through a voice assistant
Play music
Control a smart home

For many people, a low-cost device like Amazon’s Echo may be all they want since the cost is so low. Yet what do most people use a smart speaker for? Undoubtedly many people are buying smart speakers just to play music. Controlling a smart home is likely far down their list of priorities, which means that playing music is at the top and giving voice commands is likely second in importance.

If playing music is the primary use for a smart speaker, Apple is hoping HomePod’s superior audio quality will help it capture the high-end market of audiophiles who want the best sound quality possible. Of course, most people are fine listening to muffled audio through CDs or MP3 files but true audiophiles appreciate vinyl records and more expensive speakers. Those will be the people HomePod will target first.

So the real question is how good is the audio quality of HomePod compared to its rivals? If the audio quality isn’t that noticeably, people will likely choose lower-cost options. If the audio quality is drastically different, then more people will likely choose HomePod.

The ability to accept voice commands is likely secondary in importance. Siri has been on the iPhone for years, yet a vast majority of people don’t use it. Amazon’s Alexa is available on their Echo devices but again, how many people absolutely need to give voice commands to a smart speaker? It can be convenient and fun, but is this something people will do regularly because it’s something they need? At this point, the answer is mostly no.

Giving voice commands is crucial for hands-free computing such as in CarPlay while you’re driving a car and need to keep your attention focused on the road. Giving voice commands at home isn’t crucial, which means the voice assistant in smart speakers is nice to have but certainly not critical. Most people who own a smart speaker likely don’t talk to it multiple times during the day for critical purposes. That makes accepting voice commands handy but ultimately a luxury.

The third use of smart speakers is to control a smart home. Given how few people actually have a smart home, this feature is the least needed feature of all. Yet in the future, this could be a crucial feature. HomePod links to HomeKit but HomePod will likely go through several generations before people start relying on it for controlling smart homes. That means today’s HomePod will become obsolete by the time smart homes are available.

For now, the real value of HomePod will lie in its audio quality. If ordinary people can tell the difference in audio quality, HomePod will likely sell like mad. If people can’t easily tell the difference in audio quality, then HomePod will likely grow slowly and steadily like the Apple Watch.

Either way, Apple is positioning HomePod for the long term so if you don’t see a need for HomePod right now, you probably don’t need one. Wait for the next version or two and then reconsider getting a HomePod. Unlike the Apple Watch that offers real-time health monitoring as its crucial feature, HomePod doesn’t offer a similar must-have feature that everyone needs. Instead, HomePod is a luxury item that’s worth watching for the future because one day it’s going to be critical to own and use. The time just may not be now.

To read more about HomePod, click here.