Apple unveils $349 HomePod to compete with Amazon Echo, Google Home
- by Patti Cortez
- in Sci-tech
- — Jun 21, 2017
Though some pundits might say Apple is late to the game in terms of home audio, the company debuted with much fanfare its new HomePod speaker featuring Siri voice control.
Chief executive Tim Cook said, ' Just like portable music, we would like to reinvent home music'.
Apple's HomePod smart speaker has been delivered in competition with rivals Amazon & Google, using Siri voice assistant to work with Apple Music.
The Apple HomePod has an A8 chip along with a unique woof specially designed by the company. Amazon sells the main version of the Echo for $180; Google's Home speaker goes for $130. It will also be more expensive than Sonos's entry-level multiroom speaker, the Play:1, and the similarly priced SoundTouch 10 by Bose.
The voice-activated loudspeaker is powered by Apple's virtual assistant Siri, who can respond to users questions and commands around the home. Amazon has heavily dominated the field with its home speaker called Echo, which uses the digital assistant Alexa.
Not every room is the same, so the HomePod has learned about spatial awareness. If you're an Apple Music member, the HomePod can access Apple Music's full catalog, as well as tap into machine learning to learn about your music preferences and suggest songs and artists you might like.
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Currently, Apple's smart speaker does not have anything unique to give it an edge over the other two, as well as justify the higher price tag.
His comments came in the wake of the HomePod announcement - Apple's Echo competitor - during Apple's developer conference on Monday.
In a statement, Apple said the HomePod is "a breakthrough wireless speaker for the home that delivers fantastic audio quality and uses spatial awareness to sense its location in a room and automatically adjust the audio". The company unveiled a number of new products including Home Pod, its smart speaker. The speaker will be operated on Siri, Apple's voice technology.
"You should be able to tell 'Alexa, ask Siri X, ' " Limp said. And with Apple's HomeKit, Apple's proprietary wireless protocol for controlling third-party smart home gadgets in iOS, HomePod serves as a hub that can control connected lights and thermostats.
Amazon's Echo smart speaker was the tech success story of 2016.
HomePod will be made publicly available from December 2017 in the US, UK and Australia for $349. Despite the company's insistence that HomePod will sound fantastic, it all feels like too little too late to take on the growing smart speaker market.
