Apple is withdrawing its first Siri speaker
Apple’s Homepod comes in white and black. (Photo: Apple)
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Apple is taking its larger home pod speaker out of the range with which the iPhone company entered the market three years ago. The efforts should instead be focused on the new smaller HomePod Mini, as the company announced on Saturday.
The Homepods are the only networked speakers on which Apple’s voice assistant Siri can be used. With the original model, Apple pursued an ambitious strategy: the Homepod was peppered with innovative sound technology – but it was also significantly more expensive than competing devices from Amazon, for example, with the voice assistant Alexa.
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Apple focuses on the Homepod Mini
With the end of the first model, the Homepod Mini is the only smart speaker from Apple. (Photo: t3n)
Even after an interim price reduction, Apple still sells the remaining Homepod stock for 329 euros. According to market researchers, the price kept sales of the model within limits. With the Homepod Mini (test), 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 one side 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 Sonos, voice assistants from competitors such as Alexa and the Google Assistant can be integrated, but not Siri. dpa
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