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Mac vs Windows iOS vs Android Google vs Alexa History teaches us that there’s no room for third place. Furthermore, Google and Amazon have a $50 entry price

Mac vs Windows iOS vs Android Google vs Alexa History teaches us that there’s no room for third place. Furthermore, Google and Amazon have a $50 entry price.

atishay811 9y ago
You missed Linux.
- pwinnski 9y ago
  No, it's right there: iOS vs Android.
vthallam 9y ago
There is a lot of demand in the higher end market for a great speaker. Also, don't forget the apple ecosystem which people are already into. If and when Siri becomes as good as Google Assistant, people will buy into the homepod for sure.
- bastawhiz 9y ago
  There are already plenty of good sounding smart speakers out there (Sonos, for one). Most good assistants can connect to external speakers, as well. Banking on "it's not good at much, but it sounds good" is a very risky approach. Plus, the Google Home Max will be out soon, which will presumably far outshine the homepod by being a good sounding speaker and a useful assistant.
  - jacksmith21006 9y ago
    Plus the Google Home Max has two 4.5" woofers and the Home pod one 4". Depends how well done but the Max should have excellent sound and a much smarter assistant with better voice recognition than Siri.
- pixelcloud 9y ago
  I find it a bit surprising that companies like B&W haven't integrated Alexa into their wireless products. Sonos has a new wireless speaker that looks nice, but I wouldn't consider it high-end.
elicash 9y ago
I'm happy to be proven wrong, but isn't Siri on FAR more devices and used FAR more frequently than Alexa? You can talk about reliability of Siri vs Alexa, but lots of people thought Windows Mobile was actually really good, too. Same for the Palm Pre.
- melling 9y ago
  "lots of people thought Windows Mobile was actually really good, too. Same for the Palm Pre" Wasn't that my point? "History teaches us that there’s no room for third place" As for Siri being on phones, I was talking about the home assistant market.
  - elicash 9y ago
    > Wasn't that my point? My understanding of your point wasn't just that there's no room for third place, but that Apple was currently in third place. > As for Siri being on phones, I was talking about the home assistant market. This seems to be the crux of our disagreement. I don't see a home assistant market separate from the mobile assistant market. I see an assistant market, broadly, and think people will want the one on their phone to be the same as the one at home. They won't want to use Alexa at home and Google on their phone, for instance. I could be wrong about that, we'll see.
toddmorey 9y ago
I think history is teaching us new lessons with this current generation of tech companies. Apple is not just bringing a new product, they are bringing the entire trillion-dollar machine that includes worldwide retail presence, millions of stored credit cards, one of the worlds best brands, and a huge and dominant ecosystem. Any product they launch now has an inherently unfair advantage that allows them to be late to market and still enjoy success.
danieldk 9y ago
Apple has a huge ecosystem advantage in the iDevice/Mac demography of the market. I for one am holding out until the HomePod is released. One of the reasons is that it will integrate (far better) with Apple Music, Homekit, etc. Moreover, I trust Apple enough privacy-wise to put a HomePod in our home, but I would never trust Google and Amazon to not use my data for ads or selling stuff to me. Finally, it may be room for more competitors here. Windows/Mac and iOS/Android are duopolies because there is an excessive cost to developing/maintaining software for platforms with small popularity. These are basically non-extensible devices (software-wise). So, the most important factor is whether it integrates with the ecosystem that you are in.
jdmoreira 9y ago
Yahoo!... AltaVista... Google. I'm pretty sure there is room for third place.
- melling 9y ago
  Google isn’t in third place and they weren’t the third search engine. Who is 3rd in search now and what is their market share?
  - tinus_hn 9y ago
    About the same as the 2nd place. There is Google and then far away there’s everyone else.
scarface74 9y ago
If you have an Apple device, you're more likely to buy a HomePod than an Alexa or Google Home. The Home Pod is not dependent on an ecosystem the same way that a smart phone or computer is.
tinus_hn 9y ago
I know a lot of people that all have smartphone and computers and none of them have one of these devices. If this is ever going to be a successful product category there is still a very long way to go. This is definitely not a battle that has been fought.

Mac vs Windows iOS vs Android Google vs Alexa History teaches us that there’s no room for third place. Furthermore, Google and Amazon have a $50 entry price.

atishay811 9y ago

You missed Linux.

pwinnski 9y ago
No, it's right there: iOS vs Android.

vthallam 9y ago

There is a lot of demand in the higher end market for a great speaker. Also, don't forget the apple ecosystem which people are already into. If and when Siri becomes as good as Google Assistant, people will buy into the homepod for sure.

bastawhiz 9y ago
There are already plenty of good sounding smart speakers out there (Sonos, for one). Most good assistants can connect to external speakers, as well. Banking on "it's not good at much, but it sounds good" is a very risky approach. Plus, the Google Home Max will be out soon, which will presumably far outshine the homepod by being a good sounding speaker and a useful assistant.
- jacksmith21006 9y ago
  Plus the Google Home Max has two 4.5" woofers and the Home pod one 4". Depends how well done but the Max should have excellent sound and a much smarter assistant with better voice recognition than Siri.
pixelcloud 9y ago
I find it a bit surprising that companies like B&W haven't integrated Alexa into their wireless products. Sonos has a new wireless speaker that looks nice, but I wouldn't consider it high-end.

elicash 9y ago

I'm happy to be proven wrong, but isn't Siri on FAR more devices and used FAR more frequently than Alexa? You can talk about reliability of Siri vs Alexa, but lots of people thought Windows Mobile was actually really good, too. Same for the Palm Pre.

melling 9y ago
"lots of people thought Windows Mobile was actually really good, too. Same for the Palm Pre" Wasn't that my point? "History teaches us that there’s no room for third place" As for Siri being on phones, I was talking about the home assistant market.
- elicash 9y ago
  > Wasn't that my point? My understanding of your point wasn't just that there's no room for third place, but that Apple was currently in third place. > As for Siri being on phones, I was talking about the home assistant market. This seems to be the crux of our disagreement. I don't see a home assistant market separate from the mobile assistant market. I see an assistant market, broadly, and think people will want the one on their phone to be the same as the one at home. They won't want to use Alexa at home and Google on their phone, for instance. I could be wrong about that, we'll see.

toddmorey 9y ago

I think history is teaching us new lessons with this current generation of tech companies. Apple is not just bringing a new product, they are bringing the entire trillion-dollar machine that includes worldwide retail presence, millions of stored credit cards, one of the worlds best brands, and a huge and dominant ecosystem. Any product they launch now has an inherently unfair advantage that allows them to be late to market and still enjoy success.

danieldk 9y ago

Apple has a huge ecosystem advantage in the iDevice/Mac demography of the market. I for one am holding out until the HomePod is released. One of the reasons is that it will integrate (far better) with Apple Music, Homekit, etc. Moreover, I trust Apple enough privacy-wise to put a HomePod in our home, but I would never trust Google and Amazon to not use my data for ads or selling stuff to me. Finally, it may be room for more competitors here. Windows/Mac and iOS/Android are duopolies because there is an excessive cost to developing/maintaining software for platforms with small popularity. These are basically non-extensible devices (software-wise). So, the most important factor is whether it integrates with the ecosystem that you are in.

jdmoreira 9y ago

Yahoo!... AltaVista... Google. I'm pretty sure there is room for third place.

melling 9y ago
Google isn’t in third place and they weren’t the third search engine. Who is 3rd in search now and what is their market share?
- tinus_hn 9y ago
  About the same as the 2nd place. There is Google and then far away there’s everyone else.

scarface74 9y ago

If you have an Apple device, you're more likely to buy a HomePod than an Alexa or Google Home. The Home Pod is not dependent on an ecosystem the same way that a smart phone or computer is.

tinus_hn 9y ago

I know a lot of people that all have smartphone and computers and none of them have one of these devices. If this is ever going to be a successful product category there is still a very long way to go. This is definitely not a battle that has been fought.