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No HomePod for Christmas: Apple pushes release of smart home speaker to 2018

By Kim Wetzel November 17, 2017

HomePod — Jeremy Kaplan/Digital Trends

Those of you who were hoping to fill (very large) stockings with the Apple HomePod this Christmas are going to have to wait until next year.

On Friday, November 17, Apple announced that it was pushing the release date of the $349 speaker, initially set for December, to 2018. A statement put out by the company this morning noted that Apple needs a little more time to perfect the Siri-enabled smart speaker, which will compete with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant when it hits the market.

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“We can’t wait for people to experience HomePod, Apple’s breakthrough wireless speaker for the home, but we need a little more time before it’s ready for our customers,” a spokesperson told Tech Crunch. “We’ll start shipping in the U.S., U.K., and Australia in early 2018.”

The speaker, which was introduced with big fanfare at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, is the company’s answer to Amazon’s popular Echo speaker lineup that now includes several devices. At the time, Apple touted the device as a quality sound speaker first and a home assistant second, with 360-degree tweeters along the base and a 4-inch, upward-facing woofer. As a smart home assistant, the HomePod works with Siri and Apple HomeKit, and like other smart speakers, will be able to control things like light bulbs and door locks with voice command.

If the speaker delivers as promised on sound, the main competition will likely not only be Amazon, but Google, which recently released the Echo-Dot like Google Home Mini and the bass-booming Google Home Max, a $399 speaker designed for audio snobs scheduled to ship in December. The HomePod will also have to compete with recently released devices like the Alexa-enabled Sonos One speaker.

In terms of smart home assistant, Apple is currently running a distant third in the market, which isn’t bad for a platform without corresponding hardware, making us wonder if the delay in release is to give Apple time to improve the bells and whistles of the device and build up the list of devices compatible with Siri in a market being flooded with smart speakers.

Apple gave no details on when the device will be in consumers hands, other than to say “early 2018.”

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Apple reportedly working on a new iPad-like smart home display

Someone holding the 12.9-inch version of the iPad Pro (2022).

Apple recently announced a new HomePod with support for Matter, but it seems the company might have bigger smart home plans for the rest of 2023. According to the latest report from Bloomberg, Apple is allegedly working on an iPad-like device that could directly compete with Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub Max.

Details on the rumored product are scarce, but it seems the device would feature a touchscreen and function similar to an iPad. Magnets would allow it to be mounted to a wall, and HomeKit would give it access to all your smart home products. It’s unclear at this time if the device would feature a stand, allowing it to sit on your countertops like the Echo Show and Nest Hub. What is clear, however, is that Apple wants to gain a stronger foothold in the smart home market -- and this could serve as a great alternative to using the HomePod Mini as a HomeKit hub.

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The new HomePod is still too expensive, which is exactly how Apple wants it

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Apple just announced its second-generation HomePod. And it did so without too much fanfare, via press release and just a day after it unveiled new M2 processors inside new a MacBook Pro and Mac mini. And while there maybe wasn't much fanfare, there was plenty of flourish — also in typical Apple fashion — without divulging all that many details about what's new.

There's the lower price, of course, with $50 shaved off the first-gen HomePod price. The internals have been reworked some, though whether that's to lower the overall cost, or just to make things better, remains to be seen. But It's got a new S7 processor instead of the older (and less purpose-driven) A8. It's got support for the Matter smart home standard and can listen for things like carbon monoxide alarms. And it'll still play music and do other smart home stuff.

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Apple HomePod second-gen.

Apple has launched a second generation of its HomePod, for $299 ($50 less than the first-gen), with a similar design to the original HomePod. Apple discontinued the first-gen HomePod in 2021, less than a year after the debut of the HomePod mini, leaving many to wonder if the company had completely abandoned the larger smart speaker. Simply called the second-gen HomePod, the new model offers improved audio quality and deeper integration into the smart home. It's available to pre-order online and in the Apple Store app starting today, with availability beginning Friday, February 3.

In many ways, the second-gen looks exactly the same as the original HomePod. Apple has kept the distinctive rounded shape, the fabric-wrapped exterior, and the instantly recognizable touch area on top, complete with a colorful feedback display. Even the dimensions are nearly identical, with the same 5.6-inch diameter, but a slightly shorter height (6.6 inches vs. 6.8 inches). It's also a tad lighter at 5.16 pounds instead of the first-gen's 5.5-pound weight.