Apple HomePod vs. Amazon Echo Comparison: The Speaker That Earns Its Space in People's Homes
With the rise of artificial intelligence on premium smartphones, major technology manufacturers are extending it to the field of smart home assistants and home speakers.
Amazon was one of the companies that first released a home assistant device with its own AI feature, and in this case, it was named Alexa. Google then followed with the Google Home. And, of course, Apple joined the race with the recently announced HomePod.
It is important to note that Apple has contributed greatly in the field of digital AI with Siri. However, while Siri was busy helping iPhone owners, Amazon's Alexa was introduced to the general public.
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When Apple announced the HomePod during their Worldwide Developers Conference event last week, it was clearly implied that it would primarily function as a home wireless speaker and used mainly for listening to music (or at least for now).
However, the HomePod is presently only able to support direct music streaming with Apple Music, which is rather limited compared to the number of platforms supported by Amazon Echo and other smart speakers. To date, Amazon Echo supports music services from Amazon Music, Prime Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Spotify Premium, Pandora, TuneIn, iHeartRadio and Audible.
On the other hand, the HomePod is most likely going to add more music streaming platforms through its newly introduced AirPlay 2 feature. However, it does not sound like it will be as convenient as what Amazon Echo is already offering, notably, at a much lower cost of $179.99 compared to the HomePod's $349 price.
Maybe the heftier hardware inside the HomePod can explain the sky high price of the device, but it might still need a lot of improvements and additional software support to challenge Amazon head on.
To be fair, having a dedicated Siri feature on the HomePod might probably be a foundation for upcoming AI-focused features. It is just that Amazon Echo has been in the game of smart home assistants for quite some time already so the HomePod might have a hard time catching up.
HomePod will hit the market in December.
