Apple’s HomePod Just Had A Price Cut Of $50

Apple has just lowered the asking price for the company’s HomePod, which originally came at $349, by $50. So they will set you back $299 now. This reduced price is in act starting Thursday. Apple’s HomePod was last seen listed at $349 on the second of April, as showed by the Internet Archive.

Apple’s HomePod was last seen listed at $349 on the second of April

The competition among the HomePod, Home from Google, and the Echo from Amazon is believed to be the cause of this move. In the first month of 2019, Echo made up of 61.1% of the market for smart speakers, that of Google was 23.9%, according to Voiceify and Voicebot.ai. HomePod belonged to the "other" category with models like Sonos One, which made up 15%. Another possible cause is the slow and disappointing sales of the product.

The results suggest that Amazon and Google are way ahead of Apple in this respect as they are currently the market leaders. However, things might change soon as companies in the “Other” category are moving forward fast. In 2018, it made up only 9.7% of the market for smart speakers. After just a year, this number has leaped to 15%. When smaller companies gain more share, the leaders have to lose some. The figure for Amazon decreased to 61.1% in 2019. The exception is Google with its shares grew to 23.9%.

This slash cuts out a large portion of the price

This slash cuts out a large portion of the price, but it does not change the fact that HomePod is still more expensive than the equivalent models from Amazon and Google, which come at the price of $149.99 and $129 respectively. However, in comparison with Google Home Max, a more high-end option, it is still $100 cheaper.

Apple has had a bold move, but it does not answer a more pressing issue users are experience with the HomePod, which is the limitation of Siri on the smart speaker. For now, Alexa from Amazon and Google Assistant are still more highly regarded.