Apple makes HomePod cheaper, but it is still way too expensive
posted Saturday Apr 6, 2019 by Scott Ertz
Since Apple first announced the HomePod, the company's rt speaker, they have struggled to gain any traction. Even the most hardcore Apple fans have skipped this device entirely. Apple has decided that the reason customers have not purchased the HomePod is because of its price and, this week, have lowered the retail price from $450 to $300: a 15% discount.
Unfortunately for Apple, they have made a major miscalculation on the cause of consumers' disinterest in the HomePod. Apple has never had problems selling their devices when they are overpriced. In fact, overpriced hardware is kind of Apple's brand message. In reality, the reason why no one is purchasing the device is that it is massively underpowered, as far as features. You get the features that Apple has provided and that is about it. Sure, you can get the weather from Apple, or control HomeKit-enabled smartphone devices, but you don't get much more than that.
Siri has never been the most powerful digital assistant in the market, dating back to when Apple purchased the technology in 2010. While she may have been the best known, she had no developer support, meaning that only Apple could give her capabilities. When Cortana, Alexa, and Google Assistant were introduced, all were designed with extensibility at their core.
While Apple has added some developer support to Siri in the past decade, it is far from useful for developers to add real capabilities through distributable skills. Even Cortana, who is in the #3 position as far as digital assistants, has more capabilities when used away from the computer, and they are having trouble selling the Harmon Kardon Invoke for $50 (though it is a great Bluetooth speaker). If Apple wants to gain any traction on the HomePod, they need to give developers proper access to be able to build standalone apps for Siri.
