Apple announced its first ever smart speaker, HomePod, on Monday. The speaker will be powered by virtual assistant Siri. The product is an initiative by Apple to expand into the $50 billion wireless smart speaker industry. The idea of HomePod isn’t new. Amazon, the pioneer in the smart speaker industry, launched its smart speaker, Echo, in 2014 Apple HomePod will play news for you, book appointments, control climate of your rooms, do quick Google searches for you and many other tasks which any good, smart virtual assistant should do. Amazon Echo Vs Apple HomePod is a competition worth seeing, but I believe that Apple lags in this race big time.
Firstly, Apple isn’t ready to dwindle its price. HomePod will cost around $350, whereas you can buy a beginner-level Amazon Echo for $50. Amazon’s cheap smart assistant can basically do all the stuff a user could expect from a smart speaker. Of course, HomePod has some shiny, innovative features like scanning your room to configure the sound to the perfect frequency, but again, these are some a few features Apple rolls out in its devices to justify its outlandish prices.
Amazon Echo is better than Apple HomePod because it is far more flexible. You could link Amazon Echo with various smart home devices. You can even pair and integrate it with your car. Apple HomePod offers less flexibility, thanks to the closed ecosystem approach of Apple.