Apple announces HomePod to compete with Google Home, Amazon Echo

After all, the Amazon Echo is regarded in an entirely different gadget category, so it seems Apple has played it smart and demonstrated the strength of its new HomePod which could take down the Amazon Echo. The $349 price tag is a bit more expensive than comparably-sized internet-connected speakers, almost double the price of the Amazon Echo, and more than double the Google Home.

HomePod is set up so that it works directly with Apple Music. And so we wanted something that, No. 1, sounded unbelievable.

I think HomePod will appeal to people who are heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem. You and your friends can add songs to a playlist from iOS without interrupting the music.

Apple unveiled its home speaker during WWDC 2017 on Monday.

Positioned as a competitor to the Amazon Echo, the HomePod prioritizes music usage.

At about 7 inches tall, the HomePod is a bit squatter than the Amazon Echo, but roughly the same size as Google Home. But instead of focusing on the AI voice assistant capabilities, Apple has made a decision to market the speaker as a music-first product.

With or without the HomePod, smart speakers are becoming the next big thing in consumer gadgetry. "Third, it needs to be really fun to use and have a built-in musicologist". Not only will it be able to play any songs or playlists in your library, but it's also capable of maintaining a dynamic playlist. It can be used to send messages over iMessages, receive updates about news and weather, control smart devices, and more. But their approaches are different.

Revealed at the company's annual Worldwide Developer Conference in California. the HomePod will not go on sale until December, but Apple chose to give a teaser of the new product now, while the Amazon Echo and Google Home speakers enjoy the market to themselves.

The HomePod now only supports Apple Music. This makes Amazon's speaker more functional and versatile.

HomePod features a large, Apple-designed woofer for deep, clean bass, a custom array of seven beam-forming tweeters that provide pure high-frequency acoustics with incredible directional control and powerful technologies built right in to preserve the richness and intent of the original recordings. There's also support for multiroom audio with AirPlay 2.