The HomePod and Amazon Echo are Different Product Categories
When it comes to speaker quality and privacy, HomePod has no competition. – iMore
Sounds like Apple has made another excellent product. It‘ll quickly find a loyal following.
There does seem, however, to be some misunderstanding about product categories:
John Gruber has it wrong, the HomePod is essentially one vertical:
The difference between HomePod and Amazon Echo isn’t that they’re in different product categories. They’re in the same category. No one other than a gadget reviewer is going to put both a HomePod and Echo in their kitchen. They’re going to have one. It is, most certainly, a competition.
Why wouldn’t you buy a couple of Echo Dot’s the next time they go on sale?
“Hey, Siri play the most popular song in 1984”
“Alexa, reorder paper towels.“
Of course, we want our voice assistants to do much more. Which assistant is going to the following?
– turn on the lights
– open the garage door
– set more than 1 simultaneous timer in the kitchen
– play the news or music while you’re in the shower
Siri? Perhaps. Now, which one is going to do it from a second room in the house? Going to spend $30-$50 or another $350? Want to put a voice assistant in the garage and basement too? The HomePod is too expensive, it prices itself out as a solution.
Apple will likely do well in its category but the suite of Alexa products will serve a much broader audience.
Alexa already comes in all shapes and sizes: inexpensive, good sound quality, built in camera, a device with a screen, and soon built into PC’s and cars. The hacker community is getting creative with Alexa too.
How about voice integration with your television? I really like my Apple TV, but pushing a button to activate Siri is anachronistic. In fact, reaching for a remote to press buttons to mute, change volume, change channels, etc is anachronistic. “Alexa/Siri, mute TV”
In summary, there’s a market for both products categories, and there will be some intersection, but there will be soon be billions Alexa devices, where voice is the only user interface.