Earlier today, Bloomberg reported that Apple reduced the orders and lowered sales forecasts of the HomePod due to a sudden decrease in the amount of HomePods being bought everyday from Apple Stores. Apparently, as few as 10 HomePods were being sold from every Apple Store. Some days, an even smaller amount. Because of this, Apple decreased the amount of orders from their HomePod supplier, Inventec Corporation.
However, despite the sales figures being slightly underwhelming to look at, here is why the HomePod is doing good. Keep in mind that the HomePod is the first generation Smart Speaker from Apple.
So here are a few reasons why the HomePod isn’t doing as badly as sales figures and statistics make it look to be:
Firstly, as expected, the HomePod is an expensive not-needed-but-cool-to-have accessory. Apple have set a price of £349. One thing to note is that because this Smart Speaker is so expensive, it would be unfair to expect the same amount of sales from the HomePod as you would expect from a competitors’ Smart Speaker that is priced at £50. It would be unfair as the HomePod is aimed at a particular market. Whereas that £50 Smart Speaker would be aimed at a mass market due to the considerably lower price.
Secondly, as we know, Apple love to expand and develop their Eco-System; the HomePod does exactly that. The HomePod is specifically aimed at customers who are interested in purchasing a Smart Speaker and already own an Apple device. Such as an iPhone or iPad or iMac. Also, Apple device owners that also have a subscription to Apple Music or have all their music stored in iTunes and have subscribed to iTunes Match. As a result, Apple continue to make products that exclusively work with other Apple devices. Hence why the HomePod is very appealing to customers that are already intertwined with the Apple Eco-System due to having one or more other Apple Products.
Thirdly, despite the HomePod not doing well on sales figures, it is doing good in terms of the sales revenue produced; which of course Apple care a lot about. HomePod’s revenue levels are not small. This is because it may sound like Apple own a small 4% of the Smart Speaker market. However, this equates to 19% sales revenue of the total market. Therefore, in Apple’s point of view, the HomePod is doing okay for a first generation Smart Speaker.
Fourthly, this is only a first generation HomePod. Apple can make and probably will make a lot of improvements in the future. There are already rumours that Apple is apparently working on a HomePod Mini and a HomePod Max. However, releasing 2 more new HomePods might not be the only solution. Apple could also instead choose to focus on improving the HomePod by improving Siri. This would not only benefit the HomePod but would also benefit iPhone, iPad and Mac users as Siri is useable and useful on those devices too. Siri is essentially what runs the HomePod and carries out the tasks you want it to do. Therefore, focusing on improving Siri could possible be a better idea than releasing 2 new HomePods.
There you have it. 4 reasons why the HomePod isn’t doing as bad as we all think and why this new Smart Speaker has great potential to become another one of Apple’s great products!
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them down below!
Author: Holden Satterwhite
Founder of Appleosophy and Redfruit Media. Twitter: @hesatter
