# Who bought HomePod?



## Kid_Eternity (Feb 11, 2018)

[emoji848]


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## FridgeMagnet (Feb 11, 2018)

hey siri, start me some threads about homepod on Urban


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## passenger (Feb 11, 2018)

there on line for £300 plus what happens to the old pen and paper trick


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## sim667 (Feb 13, 2018)

Why would I pay £300 for something when a £35 google home mini does it better.


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## cybershot (Apr 12, 2018)

Apple Cuts HomePod Orders After Sales Prove to Be Lackluster


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## Epona (Apr 12, 2018)

sim667 said:


> Why would I pay £300 for something when a £35 google home mini does it better.



Why would I pay £35 for anything when I can get up off my fat arse and put some music on myself to listen to while I make my shopping list?


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## sim667 (Apr 12, 2018)

Epona said:


> Why would I pay £35 for anything when I can get up off my fat arse and put some music on myself to listen to while I make my shopping list?



Because some of us play music on our phones, and they're a great way to stop us looking at our phones all the time


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## twentythreedom (Apr 12, 2018)

Epona said:


> Why would I pay £35 for anything when I can get up off my fat arse and put some music on myself to listen to while I make my shopping list?


Google home allows you to bypass the "get up off my fat arse" bit. Important detail


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## Epona (Apr 12, 2018)

twentythreedom said:


> Google home allows you to bypass the "get up off my fat arse" bit. Important detail



Yeah let me know when you get a DVT


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## Epona (Apr 12, 2018)

sim667 said:


> Because some of us play music on our phones, and they're a great way to stop us looking at our phones all the time



Some of us play music on pianos and guitars and flutes and violins - *twitches slightly*


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## twentythreedom (Apr 12, 2018)

Epona said:


> Yeah let me know when you get a DVT


*Tells Google home to notify Epona when DVT occurs*

Sorted


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## skyscraper101 (Apr 12, 2018)

Apple not only missed the boat on the smart speaker market, but they've also massively misjudged what people are prepared to pay for a device that doesn't even do Spotify.


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## Epona (Apr 12, 2018)

twentythreedom said:


> *Tells Google home to notify Epona when DVT occurs*
> 
> Sorted



No worries, just tell it to let me know which funeral home to send flowers to when I get up off my fat arse and do it myself


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## cybershot (Apr 12, 2018)

skyscraper101 said:


> Apple not only missed the boat on the smart speaker market, but they've also massively misjudged what people are prepared to pay for a device that doesn't even do Spotify.



Totally. It needs to be £100-£150 cheaper. Regular people don’t care that the speaker quality is amazing. As above they would rather pay £35 for something that’s useful.


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## skyscraper101 (Apr 13, 2018)

I bought a Tronsmart T6 25W Portable Bluetooth Speaker for £36 to go with my Echo dot which is better than an inbuilt speaker because I can detach it and use it as a standalone bluetooth speaker for use when I'm not at home, or just take it to another room if I want to use it on battery power like when I was in the bath this morning.


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## sim667 (Apr 13, 2018)

Epona said:


> Some of us play music on pianos and guitars and flutes and violins - *twitches slightly*



So 20th century.


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## strung out (Apr 13, 2018)

Epona said:


> Some of us play music on pianos and guitars and flutes and violins - *twitches slightly*


How are you supposed to check your internet on those?


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## Kid_Eternity (Apr 14, 2018)

skyscraper101 said:


> Apple not only missed the boat on the smart speaker market, but they've also massively misjudged what people are prepared to pay for a device that doesn't even do Spotify.



The reason I have Sonos all over the house. That and I really don’t care about talking to a speaker...


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## editor (Jul 10, 2018)

cybershot said:


> Apple Cuts HomePod Orders After Sales Prove to Be Lackluster


It's been a thumping flop. mainly because it's shit.



> By the end of 2018, the research firm believes that there will be nearly 100 million smart speakers in households around the world. That represents an impressive increase of about 150 percent when compared to last year, and much of this growth is attributed to Amazon and Google. The Echo devices are expected to maintain an impressive market share of around 50 percent, while Google Homes will make up around 30 percent of all smart speakers by the end of 2018.
> 
> Far behind, however, is Apple and its HomePod, which is projected to corner just four percent of the global smart speaker market in 2018. And when extending projections further, Canalys does not appear terribly optimistic about Apple’s growth in this industry. By 2022, the HomePod is only expected to claim around 10 percent of the market share. While that’s better than its current standing, it’s still not a match for the other players in the market.
> 
> On the other hand, it would appear that Google will soon be catching up to Amazon with its Home speakers. In four years time, Canalys projects that the two companies will each take 34 percent of the market, meaning that Amazon is predicted to lose some ground to Google. Additionally, as other players begin to enter the smart speaker game, it’s likely that they too will be able to grab customers away from the more established folks in the space.



Apple’s HomePod only makes up 4 percent of the smart speaker market


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## cybershot (Oct 22, 2018)

This is pretty bad, considering I can only think of 3 other smart speakers!

HomePod is Ninth Most Popular Smart Speaker in United States According to Recent Survey


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## paolo (Oct 22, 2018)

cybershot said:


> This is pretty bad, considering I can only think of 3 other smart speakers!
> 
> HomePod is Ninth Most Popular Smart Speaker in United States According to Recent Survey



It would be interesting to see that split by iOS vs Android users.

Is it that the Apple community are not buying these types of products at all, or are they ‘defecting’ ?

And what’s the take up rate full stop?

Are Apple losing in a huge market, or is it niche?

(Similar question to Apple completely dominating smart watches. Are they dominating really nothing much?)


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## FridgeMagnet (Oct 22, 2018)

I don't know a single person who uses smart speakers, Alexa etc who doesn't also have some sort of smarthome bollocks.


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## skyscraper101 (Oct 22, 2018)

It’s Apple losing in a huge market.

1. Because the speakers are stupidly expensive
2. They don’t link to Spotify (unlike Alexa, Google)
3. They were way too late launching
4. Other speakers have more tie ins. Amazon being able to link to their store for example.
5. They don’t have an edge on the UI when there isn’t one.
6. Shouting ‘Hey Siri’ sounds stupid
7. There’s no obvious advantage even if you’re already locked into the Apple world to owning one

There’s probably other reasons


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## FridgeMagnet (Oct 22, 2018)

I don't think it's actually a huge market tbh. I think it's another one of those things that gets a lot more press than the sales warrant. It feeds into other markets like home automation which companies would like to promote - that's why they make a big deal out of it and do all these press releases and product announcements - but by themselves, smart speakers are a bit rubbish and you can already do everything you would do with them from your phone.

I tried quite hard to find a use for the Echo but I couldn't. It's really good at promoting Amazon Prime though.


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## cybershot (Mar 1, 2020)

John Lewis have price dropped the black one to £199 for some reason. Which is the price point this should have been all along. White is still £279.

£199 for a speaker of that quality with a John Lewis 2 year warranty is quite frankly a very good deal. If you have Apple products! There’s probably a new one on the horizon although rumours suggest it will be a cheaper mid range model in the coming months but with Apple supposedly opening up the API to third parties  which may make Siri more useful this may be a very good price point for what is still considered the best audio quality smart speakeron the market (don’t @ me the reviews speak for themselves when it comes to the audio quality)


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## Saul Goodman (Mar 1, 2020)

cybershot said:


> John Lewis have price dropped the black one to £199 for some reason. Which is the price point this should have been all along. White is still £279.
> 
> £199 for a speaker of that quality with a John Lewis 2 year warranty is quite frankly a very good deal.


I own a few Alexas and Google home devices, including a Google Home Max. I also have a Sonos One, and I borrowed a Homepod from an Apple-loving friend to compare the Sonos, Homepod and Home Max. I found that, overall, both the Home Max and the Sonos sounded better than the Homepod. The Homepod was slightly more bassy but it was at the expense of midrange, so vocals suffered, and the main thing I use smart speakers for is listening to music while I'm doing stuff around the house, and the vocals/midrange on the Homepod seemed lacking compared to the other two. OK if your preferred music is drum and bass but I like defined vocals.
And I have a Spotify account, which renders the Homepod pretty much useless.


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## cybershot (Mar 2, 2020)

Saul Goodman said:


> And I have a Spotify account, which renders the Homepod pretty much useless.



That may come as early as this month. Along with a new mid range HomePod. Probably explains the drop in price.


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## cybershot (Mar 2, 2020)

Wrong thread.


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## skyscraper101 (Mar 2, 2020)

I'm struggling to find a reason why I'd buy one at even a quarter of that price when it doesn't do Spotify and I am very much in the Apple camp with most other things (iphone, ipad, apple tv, mac etc)


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## Kid_Eternity (Mar 14, 2020)

cybershot said:


> That may come as early as this month. Along with a new mid range HomePod. Probably explains the drop in price.



Sounds like old inventory clearing...


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## FridgeMagnet (Apr 23, 2020)

I bought one. Yeah I know.

The sound quality is good - pretty bassy to my ears, but I'm not used to hearing any bass at all what with just listening to things on laptops and tiny Bluetooth speakers.

Honestly apart from that it's just Siri in a portable but decent speaker. Easy to relocate between rooms as long as you have a spare power socket. You could take it to a party if you were mad and they had WiFi. Siri is as dumb as usual of course, and if left to her own devices will play you terrible middle of the road pap, though is decent enough at recognising album and band names (had trouble even saying "Biig Piig", which means a lot of my minimal techno stuff I will have to manually select). Oh and you can hand off phone audio to it as well as make calls.


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## cybershot (Apr 23, 2020)

Hmm, could have sworn I'd commented here that I picked one up a couple months back. Maybe it's on a different thread, as pretty sure I posted they were on offer at John Lewis for sub £200 which is the price point they should have been at launch and would have had a much better uptake.

But yeah, agree, as long as you got a good deal on it, you've got yourself a very good speaker and not much else, although I have started buying some HomeKit compatible lights for the lamps which all work well with it, especially as you can do more automation once you've got something that can act as the bridge so to turn things on at sunset, or off at a certain time if you're not in, or even turn the lights on easily when away from the home app.  I've been able to hook a few non HomeKit supported stuff up with HomeBridge running on an old Raspberry Pi.

I send the sound from my Apple TV 4K out to it as well and it's a huge improvement over the Panasonic soundbar for an almost surround sound feel when watching films especially bassy sounds, which was a real surprise. Still need the soundbar though as can't send anything else out to the HomePod as it only supports Airplay and no other connectors obviously.

Hopefully Spotify support comes soon, otherwise I can see me shifting to Apple Music just to get that better experience with music, will all depend what the state of play is when my £5 a month Spotify deal comes to an end in July.


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## FridgeMagnet (Apr 25, 2020)

Siri is the worst sort of hipster music snob sometimes though, which can be bad when you've just read someone's name in an email.

"Hey Siri play some Peter Zinovieff"
"Sure thing, playing some awful shite from Beats One"
"HEY SIRI I DON'T LIKE THIS SONG"
"Oh you meant Peter Zee-no-veef, you should have said"


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## cybershot (Jul 2, 2021)

I just picked up a HomePod Mini for £75 (Sync are selling them for £75 here HomePod mini - Sync Store ) however John Lewis will price match if you want the 2 year guarantee. (assuming John Lewis manage to stay in business for another 2 years)


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## Piers Gibbon (Jul 2, 2021)

I have a homepod...as a speaker the sound is great...but siri is THICK AS MINCE...we have words, often....I am constantly amazed that apple don't throw a mountain of cash at siri to make it less dumb


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## FridgeMagnet (Jul 2, 2021)

The HomePod has been pretty much the best value I've gotten from money since last April, not that I was anticipating spending about 90% of the intervening time in my flat.


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