Apple’s Friday night move to suddenly unplug the HomePod after three years has created a messaging problem. Is everything home, Apple? This is the question posed by customers who have invested in Apple’s smart home investment.
You can trust that Apple will continue to make new iPhones and Macs in the foreseeable future, but Apple’s home products look more like Google’s betting strategy than Apple’s usual commitment to focus and delivery.
Apple Watch is an excellent example of Apple’s testing the market with a strange strategy and then switching on what works (health and fitness) and abandoning what doesn’t work ($ 10K to $ 17K models).
This also applies to the iPad. The first two models were new and magical, but to get the amazing iPad series we have today, it takes a leap of confidence to try different models that appeal to specific markets.
It looks like Apple did this with HomePod last year when they launched the HomePod mini for $ 99. Apple has had a great and best smart speaker strategy: HomePod for the premium sound experience and HomePod mini to extend the benefits of a smart speaker to every other room in the house.
You also do not have to identify yourself as an audio film to hear the differences in the two models. HomePod can be your Dolby Atmos home system for Apple TV 4K. HomePod mini is likely to beat the built-in speakers of your TV, but it does not have the feel of delivering theatrical sound.
But alas, HomePod is dead while HomePod mini is alive to see another day. In theory, existing HomePods should improve with software updates targeted at the HomePod mini, and improvements to Siri intelligence will continue to improve HomePod. HomePod mini also inherited all the development work that went into HomePod features (as well as the remaining list of feature requests). The problem, however, is who wants to invest further in an experimental product range?
It’s not just about one HomePod model either. How serious is Apple about smart home products in general? Perhaps HomePod mini will find the balance Apple needs to justify further investment in smart home speakers.
We now know that Apple will help those products that drivers deem unworthy, even if the software updates are still in progress.
How confident are we that HomePod mini will be enough to keep Apple’s interest? How sure are we that Apple TV, the streaming media box, has a place in Apple’s series? Maybe the Apple TV app and AirPlay 2 TVs are like the HomePod mini in that they reach more households.
Apple can no longer understand what terminates HomePod, but the move does leave me with Apple questions. What is the threshold for success for home products? What does Apple hope to achieve with home products? Why should customers trust Apple to believe in its home products if it does not lead the market? Why not just invest in Amazon, Sonos and other smart home solutions that feel less like a hobby?
Do you remember that Mac users had similar concerns about pro machines in Apple’s range? Apple rightly held a roundtable event with a small group of presses to communicate their commitment to professional customers with the pending release of an iMac Pro and development on a next-generation Mac Pro.
This strategy was very effective in taking a step back to regain the trust lost with Apple’s pro customers over time. Apple’s statement on Friday night that it’s pleased with the response to the HomePod mini and that the original HomePod will no longer be manufactured should be followed up a lot.
Apple has a home division at the company that works exclusively on smart home products. I would love to see Apple let this team answer these questions directly and restore the community’s confidence in Apple’s own efforts.
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