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Apple is discontinuing its better-sounding smart speaker, the HomePod, but keeping the HomePod mini, which has the U1 chip and a newer S5 processor.
Apple recently confirmed that its original full-size HomePod smart speaker was being discontinued. When shopping on the tech giant’s website, the HomePod is still available, but the choice of color may be limited in some areas and at the top of the order page a specific note “while supplies last.” The HomePod mini is still an active product, so the decision to remove the much larger version may seem counterintuitive.
The HomePod was Apple’s first smart speaker, announced in 2017, trailing the Amazon Echo for three years and the Google Home for one year. Apple has had significant success coming to market late with a more refined or more consumer-centric product, but lost the mark with its first HomePod that wasn’t available until 2018. Amazon was the biggest name and one of the first to come up jump. a voice-controlled speaker that provided the same experience as a smartphone voice assistant, but without the screen. It dominated until Google entered the market offering stiff competition with its superior natural language processing that had been refined by processing data from a large number of Android phone users.
Apple’s arrival in the smart speaker market was hardly noticed by the leaders, Amazon and Google. The HomePod focused much more on sound quality and music, which most reviews noted was very good, but the downside of Siri’s relatively poor performance as a voice assistant was also noted. Now, Apple has officially discontinued the original HomePod, as confirmed. by TechCrunch. With an original price tag of $ 349, Apple permanently lowered it to $ 299 a little over a year after launch, where it has remained ever since. While this premium price is in line with other high-end smart speakers, Apple didn’t release a lower-cost option to compete with major competitors until three years later. Advances made in Siri and other recent enhancements weren’t enough to change consumers’ perception that it lacks enough value as a smart speaker. Both Google and Amazon offer a range of speakers, starting with small models that cost about one-sixth the cost of the HomePod and going up in increments to higher fidelity and higher prices with Amazon’s Echo Studio and Google’s Nest Audio on top. . The Sonos One, meanwhile, is a high-quality smart speaker that is compatible with Apple’s AirPlay 2, while it is compatible with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, so it can be a good alternative for better audio functionality. and smart speaker than the HomePod mini.
Why HomePod mini and not HomePod?
However, the HomePod mini is still supported and the 2020 launch has been perceived by most as quite successful. Why would Apple keep the HomePod mini and not the bigger HomePod, which has much better sound quality, louder bass, and all the same Siri enhancements that its little brother has? One reason may be that technology is getting old. Since the HomePod was announced in 2017, it will be four years old by the end of this year. The HomePod mini has a newer S5 processor that was first used in 2019, while the HomePod works with the A8 that dates back to 2014. The HomePod mini also includes Apple’s ultra-wideband chip, the U1, found on the Apple Watch series. 6, iPhone 11 and iPhone 12. Each device with U1 can detect the position of other U1 devices with high precision, and there is also the possibility of high-speed communication through this signal. Rumors suggest that ultra-wideband technology will become increasingly important to Apple in the near future, so there may be additional incentive to remove or replace devices that lack this capability.
Perhaps the most important reason for cleaning your original HomePod inventory and not restocking it may be to replace it with something new. While no rumors have surfaced about a new smart speaker from Apple, a new HomePod is likely to arrive by the end of the year. On the other hand, Apple may be planning to add more premium features to the much more popular HomePod mini. The original HomePod got Dolby Atmos sound capability last November, but the HomePod mini didn’t. Stereo pairing is possible with two of Apple’s inexpensive smart speakers, but surround sound has yet to be enabled. This may not be a hardware limitation, but rather a missing feature in the software. Keeping the premium features exclusively for the most expensive device makes sense, but Apple may be seeing an opportunity to expand its limited market share by adding more capabilities to the HomePod mini. If four or more of the small speakers could be paired together for high-quality surround sound, the need for a larger HomePod would diminish. Clearly, Apple’s design and marketing team squandered the HomePod and letting it run out will allow it to move towards a stronger position among competing smart speakers in the future.
Source: TechCrunch
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