It’s clear that Apple designed this to complement the larger HomePod. It’s smaller, simpler, and way less expensive than its bigger sibling, and thanks to Apple’s work on Siri over the past few years, it can actually do more than the original when it launched. Apple was forced to lower its price, and other retailers had to discount it aggressively in order to get anyone to buy it.įast-forward to now and Apple’s new smart speaker, the $99 HomePod mini, takes a different approach. As a result, the HomePod didn’t really take off.
It was a unique device - instead of prioritizing an accessible price and smart assistant features, it was laser-focused on audio quality and considerably more expensive than its closest competitors from Amazon and Google, while being less capable as a smart speaker. Two and a half years ago, Apple finally entered the smart speaker market with the HomePod.
