Is that hard to believe?
It's probably one the reasons why they purchased Beats.
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HomePod Announced (Siri Speaker) Sonos meets Amazon Echo, $349
- Thread starter Muzy72
- Start date
It's probably one the reasons why they purchased Beats.
entremet
Member
I'm aware. I've seen them. But they're in some corner somewhere in these massive places.
These speaker will get prime (no pun intended) placement in hundreds of Apple Stores. That's a huge deal. And then the marketing push.
You can do 3rd party via HomeKit. Siri does need improvement. I agree.
Soapbox Killer
Grand Nagus
Bingo
Anything is better than TV speakers.
BlastProcessing
Member
It has a total of 8 drivers.
Marty Chinn
Member
It's not like the Echo is some new device that nobody has heard of. They have years of ground work and presence that has established them well enough by this point. It's like saying the new Apple TV was going to destroy the Roku when it came out.
Camper Van Beethoven
Banned
That depends entirely on how good it is at its job, which we can't answer yet.
cartoon_soldier
Member
Isn't Alexa like 150 and Google Home 109?
Why is this 350?
Why is this 350?
Marty Chinn
Member
You're missing the fact that he's been shitting on the Echo numerous times now and hyping up an Apple speaker long before it was announced today.
thiscoldblack
Unconfirmed Member
Watching the actual presentation of the product.
Brand loyalty x)
BlastProcessing
Member
Because it sounds good and is easy to use? People pay more for Sonos systems that do less.
If they deliver on sound quality, $350 is a completely reasonable price.
Carpe Dumdum
Banned
Ugly. Idiotic price. And most likely doesn't support Spotify. No thanks.
entremet
Member
Gonna be hard to compare since Amazon never releases sales number. But I can see this popularizing voice command speakers further just due to the marketing muscle of Apple.
Being a decent speaker should also help.
And amazon.com is a huge advantage over literally every company on the planet as far as web presence goes. The echo devices were the best selling products on the site last year.
Apple Stores are an incredible resource for sure; but that price point will keep a lot of people away. Not to mention loads of Apple customers have already entered the space via amazon or google.
BlastProcessing
Member
Alexa beats Siri because of the really good microphone array. It can hear more, but do less. If this Apple speaker has comparable mics, it's going to outpace Alexa. I say this as an early and happy Echo user.
AyaisMUsikWhore
Member
This looks equivalent to a Play:1. Sonos already has them beat on the Play 3 and up including the subwoofer you can buy to enhance the bass. This such a wasteful product. No different when Google tried to make one for Android.
Bruce Springsteen
Member
It's goi to outsell it, its Apple, that's not news
Aaah
I have both in my house. I almost never use Siri (phone or iPad) because her functionality is not useful to me in her present state. Obviously an array mic will improve response but they're not even close today.
I use for music, air conditioning lighting and cooking.
Siri IS good for telephony and calendar though.
The Albatross
Member
Price is terrible, and Siri is considerably worse than Alexa and Google Assistant (today). I'm sure developing this will help Apple improve Siri, though.
That's not really true; Sonos works with Alexa and will soon have native Alexa (to be clear, currently in beta only) . A single Sonos Play 1 + Alexa dot is ~$250, much less if you take advantage of sales. And you can use a phone, a PC, or just about any device to search for and select music, which is actually IMO a better experience than voice control. And it supports having your own music server, and every music service on the planet (including online radio and all kinds of things.)
I have 8 Sonos speakers in my house and I can quickly group them together with my phone and target music to them; obviously that's WAY pricier than a single HomePod, but I can't even do that with HomePod if I wanted to spend the money to put it in every room.
The Jackdog
Member
i have an echo and echo dot.
ill buy this in a second and get rid of both if it makes the stupid math problem of talking to alexa easier.
"invoke+call skill+specifically worded instruction"
"alexa, tell lifx to turn my hallway lights off"
got it
"alexa, tell lifx to turn my lights off"
'couldnt find my lights'
"alexa, ask uber to order my a ride"
got it
"alexa, ask uber to get me a ride"
'i couldnt understand you'
you cant talk casually to NONE of these. Your friend or neighbor cant come over and interact with alexa. anyone who wants to use it needs a goddamn tutorial before being able to do anything of use.
ill buy this in a second and get rid of both if it makes the stupid math problem of talking to alexa easier.
"invoke+call skill+specifically worded instruction"
"alexa, tell lifx to turn my hallway lights off"
got it
"alexa, tell lifx to turn my lights off"
'couldnt find my lights'
"alexa, ask uber to order my a ride"
got it
"alexa, ask uber to get me a ride"
'i couldnt understand you'
you cant talk casually to NONE of these. Your friend or neighbor cant come over and interact with alexa. anyone who wants to use it needs a goddamn tutorial before being able to do anything of use.
GuitarAtomik
Member
Well. That will look really complimentary next to the trash can macs lol.
BlastProcessing
Member
The target is Sonos. They are trying to create a easy to use, quality, whole house audio system. If it delivers on audio quality, it should be differentiated enough from Google and Amazon's offerings.
I only have one of those issues but it's because of the way nest works - my thermostat is in the dining room and has to be addressed as "dining room" rather than just temperature.
I guess the upside is the sheer number of skills available. I'm curious about the calling ability because of an elderly infirm relative. Might try it as an emergency solution.
Maybe Apple knows how many of those Bose wifi speakers have been sold? (I know I have one in my bathroom to play my phone's music on.)
Or a dot at $50 and use whatever speaker system you want.
Veritigo_X
Member
I'm just thinking about this thing in terms of replacing the other home assistants I mentioned, not speakers in general.
Apple HomeKit is is in a distant 3rd in home automation. Same for Siri.
thehypocrite
Member
Apple continues the revolution!!!
Incitemaybe
Member
Have they upgraded the a.i significantly?
entremet
Member
Not that I noticed lol. I use Siri a lot too. I also use Google Voice at lot.
andythinkpad
Member
What? seem fair after the Apple tax.
shira
Member
metalslimer
Member
Uh I guess this is for people without a decent sound setup but that price still is crazy
Couple of things to all the bashers in here.
1. This will have the new Siri features built in (machine learning, natural language, etc). So no, it shouldn't just give you bing search results.
2. The speaker actually looks to be doing some cool spatial stuff, automatically adjusting audio to fill the room properly based on the room it's in.
Now yes, we don't know how good it sounds, and how well these features work. But, it's definitely doing more than an Echo device does in terms of sound, so doing an direct comparison isn't really fair yet.
We'll see if these features are actually work as advertised and if the price is justified or not.
1. This will have the new Siri features built in (machine learning, natural language, etc). So no, it shouldn't just give you bing search results.
2. The speaker actually looks to be doing some cool spatial stuff, automatically adjusting audio to fill the room properly based on the room it's in.
Now yes, we don't know how good it sounds, and how well these features work. But, it's definitely doing more than an Echo device does in terms of sound, so doing an direct comparison isn't really fair yet.
We'll see if these features are actually work as advertised and if the price is justified or not.