Apple Cuts the Price of Its HomePod Speaker Worldwide
Apple first launched its HomePod smart speaker powered by Siri back in January 2018. Coming in at $350, the device wasn’t cheap at all compared to its competitors. And plus, the HomePod was (and still is) very limited and locked to the Apple ecosystem, making it a hard purchase for those who don’t completely rely on Apple’s services, e.g. using Spotify for music streaming.
It was no secret Apple struggled to sell the HomePod, with the device only claiming 6% of the U.S. smart speaker market as of last year.
And now, Apple is lowering the price of the HomePod worldwide to make it slightly more affordable. The device now sells for $299 in the United States and £279 (down from £319) in the United Kingdom. Apple also seems to have cut HomePod prices by roughly 15% in other regions where the HomePod is available, according to 9to5Mac.
At $299, the HomePod still isn’t cheap for a smart speaker. But considering the HomePod is more on the premium side of the market, that is sort of acceptable (Google’s Home Max is still selling for $399, for example). The only thing that is personally holding me back from purchasing the device is how limited it is to the Apple ecosystem. I want to use Spotify with this thing, but Siri’s Spotify integration is really poor and limited — making the HomePod a hard purchase, even at $299.