Apple's trendy team is, without a doubt, the HomePod. Apple is fully committed to its commercial launch and new things are discovered every day. Now, the HomePod is primarily focused on playing music and leave everything that has to do with Siri control and Artificial Intelligence in the background.
Now, Apple knows full well that there is a tough competitor in the smart speaker market. That's Amazon and its Amazon Echo with Alexa in between. Amazon has different devices for sale to best suit each user. And according to the analyst Jun Zhang of Rosenblatt Securities, Apple could launch a cheaper HomePod model this year.
Based on the analyst's predictions, those of Cupertino would be working on a cheaper model. And the great advantage that Amazon has over Apple is that one of its smart speaker models is priced at about $ 50. Apple, at the moment, only has one version and it costs $ 349.
Now, if we cut this price in half, it is very possible that Apple will get market share quickly. However, Will you sacrifice sound on a possible model that would be around $ 150-200? This is the main unknown that is presented before the possibility of a new model this year.
The first reviews give a good note to the Apple speaker. Now that we could also choose a Sonos model that has such a good price and that is one of the most direct rivalss from HomePod. At least when it comes to sound. Would you buy a cheaper HomePod if the sound quality is reduced? Would you add Bluetooth support in this new model or would you let Airplay be the only protagonist?