Apple HomePod Has Arrived! Should Amazon Echo and Google Home Be Scared?

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In its continuing campaign to take over every conceivable part of our lives, the maker of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod on Monday unveiled the Apple HomePod, the company’s first smart speaker. Naturally, this made gadget fiends positively giddy. Does that mean the Amazon Echo and Google Home should be quaking in fear?

No doubt, the HomePod—slated to be available in December—is waaaaay late to this party. The Echo arrived in November 2014, and Google Home two years later. Plus, at $349, the HomePod is far pricier than the Echo ($180) or Google Home ($130).

Nonetheless, the HomePod has some unique qualities that make it a contender. Apple’s loyal followers (or, as some call them, iSheep) are likely to line up and latch on, of course.  But what about the rest of us? Let’s take a look.

The HomePod’s secret weapon: It’s actually a great speaker

Just like other smart speakers, the HomePod is powered by a voice assistant (everyone’s BFF, Siri), which will answer queries from “What’s the weather today?” to “What’s the meaning of life?”

The speaker can can also “talk” to other Apple-compatible smart home accessories (like the August Smart Lock and the Ecobee3 Thermostat). It can learn your preferences; so if you say, “Hey Siri, play something different,” it will select a tune that meshes with your tastes.

But what truly sets the HomePod apart is its superior sound quality.

“The HomePod has the ability to adapt to wherever it’s playing,” explains Mark Bradford, a technology consultant. “It checks whether it’s a big room or a room with lots of soft stuff in it, and adjusts how it plays and in what direction.”

The result? High-fidelity sound perfectly suited to whatever space it’s in. In the words of CEO Tim Cook, as he introduced the new device at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in California, “We want to reinvent home music.”

As far as strengths go, Apple has certainly picked a weak spot with the Echo and Google Home, as neither has performed all that well in sound tests. Although Consumer Reports says its engineers deemed the sound quality on the Echo and Google Home similarly “decent,” when cranked to higher volumes it turned “a bit thin, grainy, metallic, and processed sounding.”

Or perhaps CNET put it best when comparing the two: “Which one’s better? Well, let me put it this way: what’s your favorite kind of dental surgery? While neither speaker is outright awful, I wouldn’t buy either of them if sound quality was my primary aim.”

Audiophiles will be excited, but they’ll have to wait

Granted, the verdict on whether the HomePod is the ultimate speaker won’t come until the masses actually get their hands on it in December. Yet in a preliminary demo at WWDC, a handful of product reviewers got to hear a sampling of five songs across four genres. Their verdict?

Engadget called the HomePod a “killer speaker” with a clear edge over the competition: “If listening to the HomePod was like listening to a CD, then audio through the Echo sounded like AM radio. In my experience it’s excellent for audiobooks, but if given the choice, I’d rather have the HomePod pump out my jams.”

Meanwhile, CNET declared that the HomePod’s audio was “a lot better than Amazon Echo” and also “bolder and more vivid” than another high-end smart speaker on hand, the Sonos PLAY:3. However, the reviewer did caution, “a full review of the final product is the only way to determine any real meaningful thoughts on HomePod-as-home-audio-device. But, right out of the gate, Apple is clearly going for music over smart assistance as HomePod’s major draw.”

And that could work—not only for Apple fans, but audiophiles as well.

“Audiophiles are a passionate group of consumers,” points out Eric Murrell at At Home in the Future. “I believe Apple made the right call in positioning the HomePod as an audio-first device.”

How the HomePod falls short

Nonetheless, the HomePod’s price and closed platform could limit its popularity.

“It will not beat Alexa as far as numbers go,” says Gregg Steiner, a technology expert and owner of Automated Home Living. “Amazon’s openness and incredibly affordable price make it much more usable by the masses. Amazon is being embedded in all types of products such as thermostats and cars. Apple’s closed-off garden approach will limit their success.”

Bradford also points out that the sound quality of the HomePod might not be all that different from other high-quality Wi-Fi speakers already on the market, like the Sonos.

“You can buy an Echo Dot for less than $50 and pair it with an expensive speaker with amazing sound,” says Bradford. “Apple would argue that your expensive speaker can’t analyze the room, and I’d argue that most people wouldn’t notice.”

Ultimately, it could come down to whether the HomePod will be able to offer the best of both worlds—crisp sound quality and smart voice command—in a single device. But Apple’s history suggests that the odds are good it can make that happen.

“Apple revolutionized how we consume music” with iTunes, says Bradford. “They organized it in such a way that made you happily purchase it and want to get more. If they can figure out a way to make the experience revolutionary again, using only your voice, perhaps they will have something again.”

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