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HomePod end: Apple's problem with large speakers and small candlesticks

2021-03-15T15:10:32.597Z


With the HomePod, Apple has put a high-end loudspeaker on the sidelines for the second time. Here our editor explains what this has to do with Ikea and why the HomePod is not an isolated incident.


When Ikea removed the Sinnesro candlestick from its range, I should have known: The days of the HomePod are numbered.

After all, there was - at least from my point of view - only one reason to buy one of these candlesticks: to put Apple's speakers on it.

The cheap Swedish stoneware not only had the perfect dimensions for this, it also ensured that the HomePod's powerful bass was decoupled from the floor or shelf it was standing on.

The already good sound became even clearer because of the low tones not being able to resonate as much extraneous matter.

It's almost too late now to try it out.

At best, you can still get Sinnesro at the flea market (when there are flea markets again) and the HomePod only "while supplies last".

As Apple announced at the weekend, they now want to concentrate fully on the significantly cheaper HomePod Mini.

It's not the first time Apple has tried to bring great sound to the living room.

A year before the first iPhone, in 2006, the company had already tried the iPod Hifi, a fat mobile loudspeaker to which you could plug your iPod and which you could also make mobile with six thick mono batteries - if you could carry the weight wanted.

At the time I had oracle that Apple's boombox would fit well in “designer lofts and high-gloss Ikea kitchens”.

Icon: enlarge

A HomePod, an Ikea product and an old friend, the iPod Hifi

Photo: Matthias Kremp / DER SPIEGEL

On the other hand, the great-sounding box with a price of 349 euros did not fit into the wallet of many customers.

After a year and a half it was taken off the market again.

Seen in this way, the HomePod lasted a long time, after all, it has been almost three years since I flew to Scotland to be one of the first to test the device that only appeared in Germany months later.

A typical nerd outing.

But why is it that Apple can't score with its speakers?

After all, it took the company little effort to become the market leader in wireless headphones with its AirPods.

And the expensive AirPods Max don't seem to be slow, the delivery time is currently two to three weeks.

What put off buyers shouldn't have been the price.

That would be strange, because at 329 euros a HomePod is - and soon: was - cheaper than Google's Home Max, whose production was discontinued at the end of 2020 without replacement.

Of the three big providers, only Amazon's Echo Studio remains on the market.

But let's be honest: when was the last time you heard about this?

The question of why the big, expensive smart speakers are so much less successful than their smaller, cheaper siblings seems to me to be easy to answer.

With the large boxes, the high-tech companies have tried to appeal to an audiophile audience.

But when it comes to new speakers, they will choose according to different criteria than which artificial intelligence works in them.

And for everyone else, the much cheaper Amazon Echos, Nest Audios and Apple's HomePod Minis still sound good enough.

What you expect from a smart speaker, they also do more or less well - or badly.

A loudspeaker does not need hi-fi sound to display the weather forecast, play a podcast or tell a joke.

The world belongs to the cheap.

External links: three tips from other media

  • "15 video game streamers your teens should be watching" (English, five minutes to read)


    If you want to show off your kids, give them a few tips on which YouTubers and Twitch streamers they should watch.

    The Guardian has put together an interesting list with the help of which the English skills of young German viewers can also be trained.

  • »The DIY Issue«, (English, a lot of reading minutes)


    You can do a lot to deal with the pandemic: learn an instrument, finally do sports, do something yourself.

    "The Verge" introduces more than a dozen remarkable do-it-yourself projects.

  • »Doped, lied, games pushed« (ten minutes' reading)


    Computer games can be entertaining - or profitable.

    That is when you run them professionally as an e-athlete and play for five-figure prize money.

    "Zeit Online" describes how cheating is sometimes done and how it came about.

Stay home and stay safe!

Matthias Kremp

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-03-15

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