Apple is considered one of the most successful companies in the world.
But sometimes even the Californians have to cope with a setback.
Cupertino - Californian tech giant Apple * is pulling the plug on its large HomePod speakers.
The networked wireless speakers will soon be taken out of the program, the company announced.
In the future, the focus will only be on the newer and smaller HomePod mini, it said.
Apple took a step into the rapidly growing market for networked home speaker systems with the HomePods launched in 2018.
The HomePods are the only networked speakers on which Apple's voice assistant Siri can be used.
However, despite the iconic design, the business fell short of the group's expectations.
From industry circles it is said that the Apple speakers are technically top-class, but significantly too expensive compared to competing products such as Amazon speakers.
Apple: Open flank in the high-end area
The HomePods currently cost 329 euros.
At the market launch, Apple had put the devices on the market for 349 euros.
With the HomePod mini, which costs 99 euros, Apple is attacking its competitors for speakers with voice assistants directly on their playing field.
Apple points out that technologies from the larger model have flowed into the development of the HomePod mini - and they will continue to develop innovative audio products.
At the same time, the discontinuation of the original HomePod for Apple leaves a flank open in the business with networked hi-fi speakers, which experienced a strong boost in the corona pandemic.
With devices from sound specialists such as the Californian industry pioneer Sonos *, voice assistants from the competition such as Alexa and the Google Assistant can be integrated, but not Siri.
* Merkur.de is part of IPPEN.MEDIA.