Apple’s HomePod officially went on sale Friday. It arrived later than originally planned, so Apple could fix all the bugs. Was the wait worth it? According to some critics, the HomePod just doesn’t carry the same stature as some of Apple’s other products.
Wired U.K. thinks the HomePod has great sound, but the device just isn’t that “smart.” CNBC also compliments the sound of the HomePod but says that just purchasing a Sonos is a better deal. Brian Chen of the New York Times simply suggests that you don’t go rush out to buy the HomePod.
“But Siri on HomePod is embarrassingly inadequate, even though that is the primary way you interact with it. Siri is sorely lacking in capabilities compared with Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant”
Chen believes that in terms of being an assistant, the HomePod falls far below what Amazon and Google’s systems are currently capable of. After all, as Mac Rumors reports, Siri only answers 52.3 percent of its queries. And the comments after the article aren’t very supportive of Apple’s new smart device.
“What good is ‘superior’ listening skills if it can’t answer many of the questions?” asks Jasvncnt.
“Since the HomePod is targeting the Apple ecosystem they will expect to get away with this performance. A big miss for 6 years of development and even with initial launch,” says Wags, who echoes a lot of commenters who think that Apple just decided to not put in much effort this time around.
The HomePod has become somewhat of a joke on Twitter.
Why would I Spend 300 dollars on HomePod. Has anyone tried to dictate to Siri? She sucks. Now @Apple wants me to spend on a speaker and Siri will help in every way. @apple needs to fix their virtual assistant first. I even stopped using Siri to dictate iMessage. https://t.co/rLmncdCC8n
— Tim (@wave_slder) February 10, 2018
I tried the @apple #HomePod today. It's the most awful, monotone voice I've ever heard. If this is the future, then I'm very worried.
— Tom Mercer (@GStuffOfficial) February 10, 2018
Luckily, for Apple, it was reported that the HomePod sold out its preorders right before the official launch on Friday.
“Order estimates in the US slipped overnight from delivery tomorrow — launch day — to next Tuesday, meaning that if you haven’t placed a HomePod order yet, you probably won’t be able to get one from Apple on day one,” reported The Verge. However, it’s likely that due to some of the negative initial reviews, the HomePod won’t sell as well as anticipated, and people could easily go into an Apple Store next week to buy one.
Perhaps Apple will fix the issues with Siri through a software update. However, it may be too late by then as Apple customers are used to their Apple devices working perfectly when the item is first released. But even if the HomePod ends up becoming a flop, Apple fans are forgiving enough to run out and buy whatever the Cupertino company puts out next.