Last year, Apple also entered the smart speaker arena with its own HomePod. The stylish device does not seem to be doing so well and the sales figures pale in comparison with those of Amazon’s Echo speakers and the Google Home competitors. According to a rumor from the Taiwanese supply chain, Apple would now be working on a cheaper speaker. Possibly this has to do with the disastrous figures of the HomePod.
But six percent for the HomePod
According to figures from Strategy Analytics, some 9.2 million smart speakers would have been shipped in the first quarter of the year. . Of these, only 600,000 would come from Apple. This gives the company a market share of 6 percent in the first quarter, compared to a market share of 43.6 percent and 26.5 percent for Amazon and Google.
The reason that the HomePod is sold less well, could be due to the fact that Apple came pretty late with its smart speaker. The Echo and Google Home were by that time already well established and far in their development. Another reason could be the high price of the HomePod. With a price tag of $ 349 the HomePod is a lot more expensive than the other speakers. In addition, the skills of Siri on the smart speaker are much more limited than those of Alexa and Google Assistant.
Cheaper smart speaker still more expensive
It would be logical that Apple would indeed come with a cheaper version of the HomePod. This “budget” smart speaker would get a price of $ 199, which is still more expensive than the most echo speakers. Only the Echo show is more expensive with a price tag of 229.99 euro. Also the Google Home speakers would still be cheaper.
New speaker under Beats name
According to the rumor, Apple does not release the speaker under the Apple name. For this the Beats name would be used, which shows off for the luxury headphones. In itself there are logical reasons for that. Apple’s smart speaker is quite focused on sound quality and is therefore a worthy speaker. This would therefore fit well under the Beats name. By using a different name, the new speaker would also be differentiated from the original HomePod, which could be a strategic move.
Another interesting, cheaper smart speaker is that of Xiaomi. Recently the Chinese company announced the Mi AI Speaker mini and soon we are lucky. Xiaomi officially comes to Europe, so we (hopefully) do not have to chat with the speaker in Chinese.
