Let me be clear, I want a HomePod. Two or three of them, in fact.
For no more than the HomePod’s stated reason for being — reinventing the Home Music Experience with a Multi Room solution that channels 40 Million songs in your pocket — I want this.
Apple gets Music and Great Sound. I love my AirPods, I loved every iPod and iPhone I’ve had specifically because it is so great to listen to.
Apple delivering In-Home Sound with HomePod is a no brainer for me to embrace. It piggy backs on my Apple Music library. Now, with AirPlay 2, it becomes Multi Room.
Apple is so smart to focus on Multi Room sound, and doing that really well, and only tangentially, as the Smart Speaker that would out-duel Alexa.
There is real artistry that Apple is putting together here, and it’s a particular skill that Apple uniquely possesses.
That’s why I believe HomePod will be a big hit, and why pundits that focus on the device’s price or Alexa/Google Home comparisons, miss the point.
It’s not about the Ingredients. It’s about the Integration.
But, all of this begs a simple question. If all that Apple wanted to do was deliver great sound, do you really think an A8 Chip would have been necessary? Purely for Music?
It says here that the HomePod becomes your HomeBrain, and that all of that computational and processing horsepower in the HomePod is earmarked to turn the HomePod into a Machine Learning based Watcher and Caretaker.
In the Cloud, but with all of your Secrets kept Safely Encrypted…On-Device.
Imagine a device that can recognize your entire household, its patterns, its sounds. Capturing, categorizing and actively watching for: 1) Your Changing Heath Patterns; 2) Topics You Are Interested In; 3) Every Show You’ve Ever Watched or Song You’ve Listened To; 4) Great Bits of Food and Drink You’ve Made; and 5) Your Home Security, listening for Strangers that shouldn’t be in your house.
That’s why Apple gave HomePod an A8 Chip.
