WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.920 Love them or hate them, you have to give Apple credit for one thing. Over the past couple of 00:00:03.920 --> 00:00:08.160 decades, they haven't really put out very many products that utterly failed in the market. 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:12.400 I mean, they're still selling that absurd thousand dollar monitor stand because enough 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:17.600 people are buying it. But one of Apple's most glaring missteps was this thing, the HomePod. 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:22.080 Apple's attempt to break into the smart speaker market. And the funny thing is that Apple seems 00:00:22.080 --> 00:00:27.120 like the perfect company to release a successful smart speaker. It's much more of a lifestyle 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:31.280 brand than competitors like Google and Microsoft, and it has a strong foothold in the cloud 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:36.400 services market. So why did nobody want a HomePod? One big reason was that Apple was late to the 00:00:36.400 --> 00:00:40.640 market. The smart speaker trend really started taking off shortly after Amazon released the 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:45.760 original Echo back in 2014. And of course, Google followed with the Google Home, now called Nest, 00:00:45.760 --> 00:00:50.800 in 2016. But Apple's HomePod wasn't released till 2018. And by that time, both Amazon and 00:00:50.800 --> 00:00:54.960 Google had released mini versions of their original speakers, giving consumers even more 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:58.560 non-Apple options before Apple could even get their foot in the door. But it's not like this 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:02.720 thing was the first time Apple was late to something. The iPod, for instance, wasn't the 00:01:02.720 --> 00:01:07.840 first MP3 player, and the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone. But both products sold so well, 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:13.280 they became a cultural phenomenon. However, the iPod and iPhone offered consumers paradigm 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:18.240 shifting ways of interacting with their devices, whereas the HomePod just kind of didn't. Although 00:01:18.240 --> 00:01:22.960 the HomePod's defining feature was supposed to be its superior sound quality compared to the Echo 00:01:22.960 --> 00:01:27.120 and the Google Home, that isn't exactly a game changer when you consider most folks who want to 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:32.240 purchase smart speakers just want sound that's good enough to fill a space, not audiophile-level 00:01:32.240 --> 00:01:36.720 quality. Which leads us to another key reason that the HomePod failed. The HomePod sold for a 00:01:36.720 --> 00:01:43.760 whopping US$349. And while Apple has obviously been successful at selling other arguably overpriced 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:48.880 products, the HomePod price point just doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. It was way too 00:01:48.880 --> 00:01:53.360 expensive for casual users looking for a smart assistant with decent sound quality, but it was 00:01:53.360 --> 00:01:58.160 also just too much money for people who are serious about sound. For that price, they'd be better off 00:01:58.160 --> 00:02:02.560 buying a cheap smart speaker from Amazon or Google to take care of the smart aspect and buy 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:06.960 hi-fi speakers for music separately. And as an added bonus, some of those other options you can 00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:11.600 just plug into hi-fi speakers. Of course, Apple being Apple, they could have found other ways to 00:02:11.600 --> 00:02:16.480 add value, but they just didn't. Although Siri was a massive deal when it first came out on iPhone, 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:20.960 the fact that Apple was late to the smart home game meant that Siri wasn't all that useful on 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:25.040 the HomePod. If you wanted to control another gadget with your house with the HomePod, 00:02:25.040 --> 00:02:29.440 it had to be through Apple HomeKit. And although HomeKit isn't a bad ecosystem, 00:02:29.440 --> 00:02:33.200 there simply weren't as many devices that supported it as there were devices that already 00:02:33.200 --> 00:02:37.920 worked with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. But the final nail in the coffin was the limitations 00:02:37.920 --> 00:02:42.640 they placed on music. If you wanted to listen to music, you could only stream it through Apple 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:47.120 music. Meaning if you were subscribed to another service like Spotify or Tidal, 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:51.280 you were out of luck. Although Apple finally opened up the HomePod software to support other 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:56.320 streaming services in 2020, it was far too late to make anyone care. So the original HomePod was 00:02:56.320 --> 00:03:02.160 discontinued in 2021, but Apple is trying again with the HomePod Mini, which is much cheaper at $99 00:03:02.160 --> 00:03:06.640 and has sold much better than the original model. But if that doesn't work out, maybe we'll see, 00:03:06.640 --> 00:03:14.640 you know, a HomePod Nano Pro Max XS SE or something. We'll just have to wait and see. 00:03:14.640 --> 00:03:18.240 So thanks for watching. If you liked this video, hit that like button. You can also dislike, 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:22.640 although it won't show anywhere. You can check out our other videos, probably to the side somewhere, 00:03:22.640 --> 00:03:27.520 they'll recommend some great ones, or even over my face. You can also comment with video suggestions, 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:29.120 and don't forget to get subscribed.