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Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

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Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#21

Post by kristianc »

aqzman wrote: post #6

As with all Apple products, I'm sure Apple will iterate on this and keep making a better product until it can rival Google Home and Amazon Echo. It seems quite often that Apple first generation of new products (huge exception for the original iPhone) can't really compete with competitors, but very quickly, in two or three generations, they end up with the best product on the market. Although what really surprised me…

> huge exception for the original iPhone

There's quite a lot of revisionism (completely understandable) that takes place about the original iPhone, but the iPhone only really got going with the second gen.

The iPhone is probably _the_ case study for not writing off Apple in the first gen of its product. Writing in 2006, many of the predictions why the iPhone would fail seemed perfectly reasonable (high cost, carrier subsidies, impossibility of simplifying the phone interface [1]), and it's only in retrospect that they seem ludicrous.

[1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/23/iphone_will_fail/?p...

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#22

Post by struppi »

realusername wrote: post #14
aqzman wrote: post #6

As with all Apple products, I'm sure Apple will iterate on this and keep making a better product until it can rival Google Home and Amazon Echo. It seems quite often that Apple first generation of new products (huge exception for the original iPhone) can't really compete with competitors, but very quickly, in two or three generations, they end up with the best product on the market. Although what really surprised me…

> huge exception for the original iPhone That was the case the original iPhone as well, I would say the iPhone really took-off on it's second version.

Yes. The original iPhone was: Firs, a big wow. Then a longer series of disappointments over the next few months. I remember I didn't buy the first iPhone because you could not write apps for it for the first 9 months or so (Just with JavaScript or a hacked version of XCode). And it was slow and could not do many things that other phones could do at that time.

Bought an Android soon after and so far, I have stayed. But that might change, because of the different privacy policies of the two companies.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#23

Post by threeseed »

melling wrote: post #17
aqzman wrote: post #6

As with all Apple products, I'm sure Apple will iterate on this and keep making a better product until it can rival Google Home and Amazon Echo. It seems quite often that Apple first generation of new products (huge exception for the original iPhone) can't really compete with competitors, but very quickly, in two or three generations, they end up with the best product on the market. Although what really surprised me…

They aren’t going to iterate it into a $30-$50 product. Amazon and Google are going to sell hundreds of millions of their devices, which will allow them to improve their AI globally. Personally, I think the Dot is smarter than Siri. I still try to throw a few questions to my iPhone and Apple Watch, but like Apple Maps, it’s a less than satisfying experience. I need to get my girlfriend the Echo so I can stop the “Hey…

Siri is available on Apple TV, Apple Watch, iOS and Macs.

So Apple also will sell hundreds of millions of devices and allow them to improve their AI globally.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#24

Post by Twisell »

aqzman wrote: post #6

As with all Apple products, I'm sure Apple will iterate on this and keep making a better product until it can rival Google Home and Amazon Echo. It seems quite often that Apple first generation of new products (huge exception for the original iPhone) can't really compete with competitors, but very quickly, in two or three generations, they end up with the best product on the market. Although what really surprised me…

It’s always the same issue when trying to compare Apple products vs others. Apple sell a lot directly to customers via their own on-line and physicals stores.

So before Quaterly results sales figures are pure speculation from analysts (and to be even worse Apple often don’t even reveal précises sales figures for new segments, melting number in the "others" category).

On the other hand competing manufacturer don’t do a lot of direct sales and communicate sales to resellers (so a sales don’t mean the product was actually bought and used by a real customer). Meanwhile Tim Cook was the architect of a zero stock policy so for Apple sale figures, every unit produced are put into a real customer hands.

So at the end of the day it’s usually only after one or two year after Apple entered a new market that you can really mesure success. In case of success Apple can’t hide benefits of the new line in the "other" category and you start to have real metrics. And if competitors stay on resellers inventory you start to see big discounts while their financials results decline.

In case of Apple faillure (like "fatboy" iPod or the "tin can" MacPro) Apple let the product slowly die and ultimately revamp it’s product line. Meanwhile competitor financial trajectory is unnafected.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#25

Post by coldtea »

Or that's what some report says.

They were numerous such reports about the iPhone X -- after it was made available and until Apple published their quarterly results, and it became evident that all those reports and analysts speaking of bad sales were all bogus.

HomePod might or might not have sold well. But not because some BS report says so.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#26

Post by tpush »

aqzman wrote: post #6

As with all Apple products, I'm sure Apple will iterate on this and keep making a better product until it can rival Google Home and Amazon Echo. It seems quite often that Apple first generation of new products (huge exception for the original iPhone) can't really compete with competitors, but very quickly, in two or three generations, they end up with the best product on the market. Although what really surprised me…

> Although what really surprised me in this article is that Google Home only has 14% of the market share while Amazon Echo has 73%

These are sales figures for the first two months where Homepod was available, not overall market share.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#27

Post by tbassetto »

make3 wrote: post #8
SirHound wrote: post #3

I believe it. Siri is woeful. Plus they sell it as a high quality speaker yet it has no line-in for me to use with my entertainment system. For £350 that’s a hard pass from this Apple fanboy.

is Siri that bad compared to the other home assistants? from what I've seen at least, it feels pretty similar to google assistant and alexa (which imho is strictly worse than google assistant, but that's just an opinion)

I have never tried Alexa. While I am quite invested in Apple's ecosystem, I also have a Google Home and the Google Assistant is MUCH better than Siri. It understands my non-native English accent much better and also understands way more different requests.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#28

Post by coldtea »

mrweasel wrote: post #5
threeseed wrote: post #2

Slice is the same company that said the Apple Watch wasn't a hot seller either. So I would be taking this with a grain of salt. The fact is that we just don't know what Apple's internal targets are. Nor do I think lacklustre sales are all that worrisome anyway given that the HomePod quite firmly locks users into the Apple ecosystem e.g. only works with HomeKit and Apple Music.

Is the Apple Watch er success? They sold reasonable well initially, but pretty much everyone I know who bought one sold it again within a year.

Perhaps your friends are not representative then.

They have been continuously selling more each year, and have multi-billion share of Apple's sales now. Apple speaks of "50 percent unit growth for 4th quarter in a row".

(And of course eclipse in sales any other smart watch -- more than 10x times more).

"Apple Watch Sales Soar To 8 Million In Last Quarter, Apple Owned 2017 Wearables Market" https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2018/03/01/apple-wa...

Report: 2017 brings huge Apple Watch growth, 18 million units, up 54% YoY https://9to5mac.com/2018/02/06/apple-watch-2017-sales/

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#29

Post by draugadrotten »

threeseed wrote: post #23
melling wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren’t going to iterate it into a $30-$50 product. Amazon and Google are going to sell hundreds of millions of their devices, which will allow them to improve their AI globally. Personally, I think the Dot is smarter than Siri. I still try to throw a few questions to my iPhone and Apple Watch, but like Apple Maps, it’s a less than satisfying experience. I need to get my girlfriend the Echo so I can stop the “Hey…

Siri is available on Apple TV, Apple Watch, iOS and Macs. So Apple also will sell hundreds of millions of devices and allow them to improve their AI globally.

I can't wait. Siri "AI" is one of my biggest tech disappointments. I was expecting Apple to data mine the millions of voices and questions they got and teach Siri new things every week. Years later, Siri still can't understand that I want to call back my missed phone calls.

Re: Apple’s HomePod Isn’t a Hot Seller

#30

Post by tpush »

threeseed wrote: post #23
melling wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren’t going to iterate it into a $30-$50 product. Amazon and Google are going to sell hundreds of millions of their devices, which will allow them to improve their AI globally. Personally, I think the Dot is smarter than Siri. I still try to throw a few questions to my iPhone and Apple Watch, but like Apple Maps, it’s a less than satisfying experience. I need to get my girlfriend the Echo so I can stop the “Hey…

Siri is available on Apple TV, Apple Watch, iOS and Macs. So Apple also will sell hundreds of millions of devices and allow them to improve their AI globally.

Apple already sold hundreds of millions of devices and their AI is comparatively awful.
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