HomePod 2018-2021
Apple announced that the HomePod has been discontinued as of March 12, 2021. Apple is now 0-2 in the $349 HiFi speaker game.
By now, you must have heard the news: the HomePod is gone. Or at least it's going, available for purchase "while supplies last." TechCrunch broke the news yesterday (March 12) in a statement it published from Apple that the company was now "focusing our efforts on HomePod mini. We are discontinuing the original HomePod; it will continue to be available while supplies last" After that, the HomePod, like the iPod HiFi, will go down in the annals of Apple history as yet another miscalculated attempt to make premium home speakers a thing.
I'm as shocked at the discontinuation of the HomePod as I am by the fact that I'm shocked at all. Let's be realistic; this speaker never took off. It was introduced at WWDC in 2017 and released in February 2018 in only three Markets: Australia, The United Kingdom, & The United States. Four months later, that expanded to France, Germany, and Canada. And in the three years it was available, it only ever expanded to China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Mexico, Spain, & Taiwan; its scope always remained limited. The speaker was never made available across most of Europe, Latin America, or the Asia Pacific.
I received the HomePod on February 20, 2018. While the HomePod wouldn't launch in Canada until June of 2018, I managed to find an exporter in the US that could ship a pair of the speakers before they officially became available.
Unveiled as Apple's attempt to enter the smart speaker market, the HomePod entered a landscape dominated by sub-$100 Amazon Echos and Google Home devices. Apple seemed to be banking on the idea that releasing a premium speaker into this market might be their winning strategy to carve out a niche for themselves. But people didn't bite. Originally priced at $349, the HomePod saw a price cut to $299 only a few months into its release, and it was not uncommon for units the regularly go on sale for as low as $199. Despite its superior audio quality, people weren't interested in a more expensive speaker with an anemic voice assistant that didn't play nice with third-party music streaming services. Finally, one of the tentpole features of the HomePod, stereo pairing, meant spending another $300 on a second unit. I rarely naysay something Apple does, but even I had a hard time coming to Apple's defence on this one.
Don't get me wrong; I ❤️ my HomePods. Living in Canada, I wasn't in one of the launch countries for the HomePod, but I managed to find an exporter in the US who could ship a couple to me shortly after they were released. On February 20, 2018, both arrived, one placed immediately in the bedroom, the other in the living room, and that's where each has faithfully remained for the last three years. In late 2020 I added a third HomePod, this time for the office, though that HomePod was swapped for the mini. That moved the office HomePod to the living room, finally creating a stereo pair I had longed to have. I’ve done more than my fair share to keep the HomePod alive!
The HomePod stereo pair powers my home theatre setup.
Despite getting a lot of value from the HomePod and finding it a great-sounding speaker, I can understand how Apple struggled to move these in volume. The HomePod was expensive and only played nice for those who were deeply embedded in Apple's ecosystem. With no aux port and no ability to natively integrate third-party services until recently, the HomePod had a strict price of admission, which likely alienated many potential users from the device.
All is Not Lost
In the fall of 2020, Apple unveiled a second model of the HomePod, the HomePod mini. At the time, I predicted that the mini would slide into the role of becoming the default HomePod, while the full-sized HomePod would become something akin to a HomePod Pro; I hadn't expected the regular HomePod to be soon discontinued.
With the mini, Apple has struck a perfect balance of size, price, and sound quality. Apple has also expanded support for third-party streaming services, making the mini a product that will succeed where the HomePod failed. I'm glad Apple's stated their commitment to the mini, rather than leaving its future open for speculation as to whether it too will languish until the day it eventually gets canned. But at this point, after going 0-2, I'm not optimistic Apple will reenter the high-end home audio market anytime soon.
In 2006, Apple released the iPod HiFi for $349, and it was discontinued 554-days later. In 2018 Apple released the HomePod for $349, and it too was discontinued 1127-days later. Maybe Apple should stay well away from the $349 speaker market, or perhaps third time's the charm?
As of noon on Saturday, March 13, the Space Grey HomePod is completely sold out online and across all Apple Stores within 500 miles of me. The White HomePod continues to remain available online and at one store a 3-hour drive from me.
