That’s a feature, not a bug.
What people are failing to see in this deal is that both Apple and Amazon are coming out winners. The loser here is Spotify and that’s a deliberately calculated move by Apple.
This is a complex strategy so it won’t make sense if you’re looking at it two dimensionally. You need to look (far) ahead, not just at the current situation.
Here are the points that will help understand that strategy:
1. Amazon will never win in the smartphone market. Apple and Google are too entrenched. Amazon is not a threat to Apple’s revenue generation.
2. Amazon Echo is a product whose only purpose is Alexa. Meanwhile, Apple will continue to sell iPhones regardless of how far behind Siri is from Alexa. They’re not competing with each other.
3. HomePod isn’t trying to be an Amazon Echo competitor. It’s playing for an audience who appreciates excellent audio quality and who subscribes to Apple Music. Those people will not buy an Amazon Echo for the purpose of listening to music.
4. By putting Apple Music on Amazon Echo, Spotify is no longer the default music streaming service with a de facto exclusive on Alexa devices. Echo users can now subscribe to or retain their Apple Music subscriptions while using it on the established home assistant. Apple builds a subscriber base, further eating into Spotify, Apple’s real competitor.
5. Now, which speaker do Apple Music subscribers buy if they want excellent sound? I’ll refer you back to point 3. Amazon Echo and HomePod aren’t competitors: they’re complementary to one another. People who buy an Echo for Alexa can also purchase a HomePod for Apple Music sound quality.
6. Siri plays no role here — for now. Apple is clearly investing heavily in AI and in Siri itself given its high profile hires and how it’s reorganized its executive structure. Apple doesn’t have to beat Alexa in a sprint. Voice assistant tech is going to be a long marathon. They’de still years away from being the natural language assistants we envision in sci-fi.
7. iPhones will continue to sell with or without Siri matching Alexa’s popularity. People don’t buy them for Siri. Elsewhere, Apple is working on conquering the next generation of personal computers: wearables. AppleWatch is so ahead of the competition that it’s pretty much the only player, very much how iPod lead the field for its entire existence.
8. With iPhone, Apple Watch and HomePod selling for reasons unrelated to Siri’s ability to outsmart Alexa, what they all share is that they do have Siri and once the advanced Siri that Apple is so clearly developing is ready for prime time, all of those devices will instantly become Siri devices with a much bigger installed base than Alexa.
Check mate.
2. Not entirely. If it was solely a speaker it would be as big of flop as the Fire Phone. But it’s also marketed as a [miserable] home hub, and a [horrible] assistant.
3. Nope. Apple is marketing it as an entire home kit package. Saying consumers don’t buy Amazon Echo or Echo Dot to listen to music is wrong too. The Echo is a more reasonably priced alternative to the ridiculously priced Home Pod. The market is for a reliable home Assistant in addition to music. How many people will buy multiple versions of the Home Pod to create stereo sound or to sprinkle them around the house to control home devices?
4. Apple Music availability on Echo and Echo Dots is probably Apple’s damage control to slow customers from migrating to Amazon Music. That’s my gut feeling but haven’t looked at the Apple Music statistics. The default music stream on Echo and the Dot is configurable but for me it’s Amazon Music (free to Amazon customers) and Amazon Music Unlimited ($7/mo subscription). As far as I can tell they are equal or superior products to Apple Music.
5. I already have sonos all over the house which I can control effortlessly with a Dot. I have eight Dots (2x$50j now so no matter where I am Alexa is available as a flawless assist to control timers , start times, control all my lights everywhere or individually, music on Sonos everywhere in the house or in individual rooms, control my house thermostat, give weather and news briefings. I don’t need a Apple’s “speaker” at $350 a pop and whose home assistant functionality is unreliable and awful.
7. Once Siri is ready for prime time? Lol. Siri today has a reputation as a barely functional illiterate. It’s going to take a lot to overcome it. And other assistants like Alexa will be improving at the same time Apple struggles getting Siri ready for “prime time.”
Lastly... when I wake up I say “Alexa, good morning.” I can say it in ANY room I’m in. (Not in the one room where I shelled out $350 for one HomePod.)
With those words, Alexa replies and automatically...
1. Meets with a greeting
2. Turns on the lights in the rooms in the color and strength I set up
3. A short fact for the day
4. Reads the weather
5. Reads my Apple calendar for events that day
6. Gives a traffic report with a driving eta to my office
When I get home...
“Alexa, I’m home”
She automatically....
1. Greets me
2. Turns on the lights in the rooms in the strength and scenes I set up
3. Pipes “Alternative” music on all the Sonos speakers in the house at the volume I set up.
“Alexa, I’m going to bed.
1. She turns off Sonos
2. Turns off the lights in the rooms I’ve set up.
3. Turns on night lights in the main entry way and kitchen.
I’ll continue buying IPhone and iPads because I like them. As an assistant Siri is on par as a barely functional illiterate. As a home assist HomePod is not an answer.
I’m dropping Apple Music because Amazon Music is just as good and it’s available as a streaming source on Sonos just as Apple Music is.
A neighbor dropped Apple Music for the same reason. However he uses Bose speakers rather and Sonos or the overpriced HomePod.
I will admit the HomePod is a better speaker than the Echo when the Echo is only used as a speaker. But since HomePod and Echo are not only speakers HomePod fails in every other category.
