Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Smart Home
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

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

Kim Wetzel
By

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.

Recommended Videos

“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.”

Related

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.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Kim Wetzel
Kim Wetzel
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Before joining Digital Trends as Home Editor, Kim was an adjunct journalism professor at Linfield College and high school…
Break out of a rut with these useful summer-focused smart home routines
The Amazon Smart Thermostat hanging on wall.

Glorious summertime. Those three to four months of the year when the beach is a constant destination, the kids are free to roam, and your residence becomes the key spot for all your friends and family to hang out. And what better way to amaze your familiars, and build security and efficiency into your life, than with a range of smart home automations?

Whether you're building routines with Alexa and Google Assistant or creating scenes with Apple HomeKit, these if-this-then-that commands are designed to group and simplify a set of smart home actions into one executable -- such as a voice prompt, time of day, or intuitive geofencing that automatically adjusts your thermostat when you leave for work.

Read more
How to set up your smart home for beginners
Vont Smart LED Light Strip installed in home.

If you’re just beginning your smart home journey, it can be difficult to figure out where to start. From smart thermostats and smart speakers to robot vacuums and light bulbs, the number of gadgets on the market is truly staggering -- and can quickly become overwhelming to newcomers.

Thankfully, piecing together a smart home is pretty simple. While you can easily sink hours into automating every aspect of your household, all that's really required for a “smart home” is a few products and their accompanying apps on your phone. If you need some guidance getting started, here are some tips to help set up your smart home.

Read more
Aqara launches U100 smart lock with full Apple HomeKit support
A person unlocking the Aqara U100 smart lock with their phone.

The list of smart locks that support Apple HomeKit isn’t quite as impressive as those of Google Home and Alexa, but Aqara has officially added one more to the list with the Aqara Smart Lock U100. Clocking in at $190 and now available on Amazon, the premium smart lock offers full support for Apple HomeKit -- along with tons of cool features that should position it as a top option for smart home enthusiasts.

As you’d expect, the Aqara U100 comes with a keypad that lets you enter a passcode to unlock the deadbolt. However, you’ll also find a fingerprint scanner that can hold up to 50 unique prints and the option to set up Apple home keys to unlock it with your Apple Watch or iPhone. Aqara also tossed in a physical key in case of emergencies.

Read more