Apple’s new HomePod is hitting the market again after a 2 year absence. The claim is that they updated the HomePod. It has been redesigned internally but has the same exact look as the original HomePod launched in 2018.
One nice thing is that it comes in at $299 as opposed to the 2018 model which was $349. Personally I think this is still a tad high for just being a speaker. At that price people would probably go with a Sonos One for $100 less. Apple has always been a bit overpriced for what some of their products are and can do.
HomePod is a prime example of not keeping up to date with what the consumers want. Sure it may be a great smart speaker, but that is all it is, a smart speaker. People want to have a visual to go along with most smart home tech. Look at Google’s Nest Smart display. You get a nice display along with a speaker. Granted the speaker does not have the impressive sound that the HomePod does but you can just bluetooth it to another speaker, like the aforementioned Sonos One. To get a truly immersive sound, you need to get 2 of these that will work together. Granted you can tell Siri that you want to play a song in the bedroom from the speaker in the office or anywhere else in the house, nice feature. You would have to buy a few of these to get that luxury. At $299 that would add up fast.
With all the updates and ultra fast processing power that Apple has produced, why are they using the same chip as the Apple Watch 7 which in turn is the same chip as the Apple Watch 6? It’s an S7 with 64-bit dual-core processor. Which is fine and dandy but why not more processing power. Maybe it was a cost cutting measure. Not the first time Apple has reused older chips. Another area where Apple falls short is being able to link a lot of subscription music services. Yes you can link Apple Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Deezer, and TuneIn. Missing are the big ones like Spotify, Amazon Music, Sirus XM, YouTube Music. Maybe that will change in the future.
Now if all you are looking for is an impressive speaker and you are a big fan of Apple products, Apple’s new HomePod is for you . At this point I do not think I will be getting one for that price. If I had some money to throw around, which most of us don’t I would probably get one maybe 2. Go to your local store and check one out the sound quality when they are released on Feb 3.
