Apple’s New HomePod Speaker to Compete with Amazon Echo

For years now Apple has built and distributed some of the world's most popular digital media players. However, the Cupertino, California-based company has yet to spring into the home speaker market -- that is, until now.

Earlier this week Apple unveiled the aptly named HomePod, a speaker that stands seven inches tall. Available in white or black, the HomePod, which looks something like a microphone, features seven tweeters and an upward firing 4-inch woofer, six microphones and the same A8 64-bit ARM-based processor used in the iPhone. Apple says the HomePod’s tweeter array forms very narrow beams of sound for a 360-degree audio experience. It's expected the HomePod will be available later this year for about $350.

Although the HomePod looks a lot like several competing products from Amazon and Sonos, the company insists it’s really quite unique. In a recent interview, Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of global marketing, said the HomePod will provide better sound quality than Amazon's Echo and more interactive capabilities than Sonos' line of wireless speakers.

For example, Apple promises that HomePod will employ Siri voice integration, allowing the device to act as a "home assistant." To begin interacting with the HomePod, users will simply need to say "Hey Siri," followed by a question or command. For those concerned about security, Apple says all communications with the HomePod will be encrypted.

It's not yet clear what the HomePod’s Siri functionality will help users accomplish. In addition to playing music through iTunes, the device can provide news updates, help with math questions, send messages to friends, mark the calendar, translate certain terms, relay stock news, and even answer basic trivia questions. Still, Apple says the primary focus of HomePod will be music, not home shopping, differentiating it somewhat from the Amazon Echo device.

When asked why it took so long for Apple to release a speaker of this kind, the company's chief executive officer, Tim Cook, said it was a matter of taking the time to build a product consumers would appreciate. "For us, it's not about being first," Cook said. "It's about being the best and giving the user an experience that delights them every time. We don't let that impatience result in shipping something that is just not great."

Conclusion

One major sticking point for consumers may be the HomePod's $350 price tag, which makes it twice as expensive as Amazon's Echo. In explaining this substantial price difference, Apple points to better sound technology in the HomePod. That’s a bold claim given that this is Apple’s first major foray into the speaker market. And it’s not as if the company’s ear buds, which it has shipped alongside its various digital media players for years, boast top-notch sound quality. However, Apple does have their own $100 million dollar test chamber originally built for iPhone testing so this could be a BIG small step for them to take into the speaker market.

Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see whether consumers embrace the HomePod in the same way they latched onto the iPod and iPhone.

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