Apple’s HomePod is the company’s biggest product deviation in over a decade. Sure they’ve made some accessories and dabbled with smart watches and headphones but the HomePod represents a departure from the company’s main hardware streams and instead is born of their software services.
Part digital assistant, part music delivery device the HomePod could also been seen as a phoenix of the Apple’s failed past. Channeling the long forgotten iPod HiFi the HomePod embodies many qualities of the former product including an incredible level of sound reproduction as well as the exact same sticker price of US$349 (A$499).
The HomePod also includes a series of new features, such as the ability to analyse its surrounding environment and adjust its output accordingly. It will also, potentially, have the ability to automatically pair with a second HomePod seamlessly within the same room if Apple finally get that to work.
For most my review will be no great revelation. It largely reiterates the consensus of many that have circulated before it. What I hope it does do though is help to convey just how impressive its sound quality can be while highlighting how significantly Apple’s walled ecosystem continues to turn away consumers.
The HomePod, as incredible as it is, is just another unfortunate example of Apple shooting themselves in the foot in a post Jobs era.
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