Apple’s HomePod teaser was somewhat oddly placed. Two hours into a developer conference without real developer opportunities and six months before the product is ready to ship. Why? Apple surely has a list of reasons like working around leaks and market pressure to show what they’ve been building.
I would still wait for Apple’s HomePod even if it didn’t claim superior audio quality for music playback (and maybe there’s an opportunity for lower-end versions of the smart speaker at a cheaper price down the road).
Finally, there’s HomeKit. Being able to control my HomeKit lights, thermostat, fans, and plugs with an always-present voice assistant has been very appealing to me, but having to sort out which accessories work with Alexa as well would be a major inconvenience. The goal for me is to tell family they can communicate with the smart speaker naturally without sharing HomeKit access to guests or managing a separate smart home system.
As for my Sonos speakers, they still work with Apple Music even if the software to control them is sub-par (especially on the Mac). I’ve been tempted to expand my collection there too, but I won’t following the HomePod announcement.
I have two Sonos Play:1 wireless speakers and one Sonos Play:5 which is a higher end speaker than what HomePod claims to be. They’ll stick around as they’re still useful for listening to Apple Music across multiple rooms, but I won’t add to the collection unless they work with AirPlay 2 which isn’t likely.
