The original iPhone made a point of doing three things well: being an iPod, being a phone, and being a mobile internet appliance. Basically everybody had a phon

The original iPhone made a point of doing three things well: being an iPod, being a phone, and being a mobile internet appliance. Basically everybody had a phone and an iPod at the time, the combination was enough to sell a lot of people. Having an excellent real browser and very good mail app certainly helped a lot. But I think the "third heat" effect there had a lot to do with the success of it. The HomePod will not be saved by being the best at one of the two or three major functions of these things, when it is so absolutely sucky at the other two. I'm sure a cult following will develop around the audio quality. But this product is going to fail unless they address the elephant: Siri is worst-in-class on an iPhone, and it's apparently even more hampered on the HomePod. What are the "platform" effects you think are going to sell this, like the original iPhone had? What exactly could Apple do to enhance this, beyond the obvious one of getting Siri to work? Apple TV is kind of in a similar boat. The sales numbers are not that great, the competition is stiff, and the refreshed Apple TV has continued to not get enough love to really address this. They just seem like they can't keep it together.