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Is "quietly" really the appropriate word here? Do stores typically put out announcements when they stop stocking certain products? If not, "quietly" just seems to be a way to create an air of vague menace and treachery without saying it.
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You nailed it so well in this comment, I have been pointing out this from when they launched Apple Music. The classic excuse which people hide behind is "but they don't have a monopoly". Sure, they don't have a monopoly in precise terms. But the power they have to push products in new verticals is just unfair to the competition as they can't compete on equal terms. Jabra's parent company in total earns less than 10%…
Interesting. I haven’t used greasemonkey in years, but was considering looking at it to filter out Apple threads. One week it’s all valiant Epic and fervent downvoting of those questioning the viability of the lawsuit, to a next week everyone agreeing with the judges surly review of the case. Looking at the top Apple threads for the last month, it hardly looks like HN is some positivity echo chamber: https://hn.algol…
Maybe they saw the writing on the wall and chose that path to fight on.
> Highly probable any settlement may have included carrying their products for some period of time.
Apple would have sold Bose products just for the retail cut they can get. They are considered premium and for a lot of categories Apple didn't have competitors till now, so it was better to just sell products like Bose for the retail cut.
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> For sure, nobody's buying HomePods for Siri Well there are better standalone speakers and there are better "smart" speakers. As it stands it doesn't really justify the premium over Sonos, Echo or Google Home. Heck at least let me use bluetooth.
Honestly, I buy Apple devices because of the cross-device integration. I grant that many of Apple’s devices aren’t the best in the category: but I find that, considered as a “computing environment”, they’re pretty hard to beat. Also, I trust Apple’s “don’t listen for Hey Siri” feature more than the either Google’s or Amazon’s
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Apple AirPods wouldn’t have sold so well if the existing Bluetooth headphone space wasn’t such trash. AirPods isn’t a great example because the product was so much better than anything else out there in the same category (ear buds). Maybe a better example would have been Apple Music?
I am not a fan of earpod form factor at all but Jabra's wireless earphones are rated better by many sites like Wirecutter and at least I find the sound quality of Jabra much better.
It's kind of like suggesting that Lenovo's T14s (I picked it at random) laptop is better and cheaper than a Macbook, so why would anyone a Macbook: People still have to wade through the X1 series, the P series, the rest of the T series, the X series, the Yoga series, the E series, the L series, the 11e series, just to find that one Macbook-killer. Or they can just go to apple.com and buy a laptop and be done with it. Except in this case, it's bluetooth earbuds.
I guess it shows that they are confident their own over-ear noise canceling headphones will mimic some of AirPods' success. HomePod is still trash though, so not sure what their plan for that is.
> HomePod is still trash though… Oh my, no. Say what you will about Siri, they sound wonderful. For example, they shame my Sonos Play:1s.
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My Bose headphones are miles more comfortable and more effective at active noice cancellation than the best Apple Beats. Will that change? Maybe. I mean...I hope so. It's hard having only Bose and Sony credibly competing in the wireless over-the-ear ANC space. It would be really nice to be able to get away from the crap bluetooth scourge like AirPods kinda sorta started doing with their W and H series chips.
But Apple Beats are poor quality to begin with, it's just got Dre's name associated to it to make them expensive. Most major brands are better than beats by a long shot. However, most brands are beginning to cheap out IMO. I had a pair of sennheiser headphones back in like ~2005, they lasted like 11 years before the cups started to fall apart. I replaced them with a new pair of sennheiser which lasted ~12 months befo…
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I mean the answer to all of these and more is having lots of cash needing investment vehicles that do better than just passively investing it in the market. None of these companies are menacingly laughing in board rooms, they’re just seeing other companies prove markets for them and betting that they can compete. If you want to get that first party integration/advantage these companies are happy to partner with you,…
So you're saying Sonos'/Bose's efforts are trivial? Audio is a solved problem for five people and a pizza? What isn't? I mean, Apple is building a Hollywood studio. That's insane. I get the feeling nothing is safe. If Apple wants to do it, they'll do it. Same for Amazon.
Seems like this is the same calculation everyone needs to make when planning or evaluating startup ideas. I'm always curious to hear about the current unsolved technology areas are (other than poorly-defined concepts "data science" and "A.I", that is).
Is "quietly" really the appropriate word here? Do stores typically put out announcements when they stop stocking certain products? If not, "quietly" just seems to be a way to create an air of vague menace and treachery without saying it.
It's tech media shorthand for "we just noticed this, but we're not sure when it actually happened"
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Try to sample HeOS - I thought they sounded better than Sonos with virtually same feature set.
HeOS is bluetooth only while Sonos is now bluetooth and WiFi. WiFi is nice because I don't ever get connection issues or drops around the house. I have a few bluetooth speakers and they were bad at this. Just walking into the kitchen or bathroom caused the connection to drop.
Agree with grandparent comment, the HEOS speaker sound is fuller/richer, less reliance on Bose-style psychoacoustics.
Further, the Denon AVR with HEOS surrounds is the only receiver I know of supporting integrated amplifier for wired front speakers (separates) and WiFi wireless surrounds. I run Definitive ProMonitors and ProCenter for front, and Denon HEOS for surrounds.
(Note: Many receivers support wireless for other zones, I’m talking about mixing amped and wired for front with wireless for surrounds, and also ruling out “kits” where you can’t mix and match your own choice of speakers.)