Matti Robinson
18 Nov 2017 12:20
Apple has decided to push back one of the products originally revealed nearly 6 months ago in WWDC. The smart speaker, dubbed HomePod, has been delayed further and won't be seen in stores this holiday season.
Apple has not given a direct reason to delays, but it seems fairly obvious that the company would've liked to release it to the public before Christmas. Apple just said it needed more time to finish the product, and thus we do not know if the problems were in hardware or software.
One can, thought, speculate. It seems more likely that Apple wasn't happy with the Siri implementation, after all the hardware in an Echo-like smart speaker should be a breeze. However, software problems could be figured out later, at least if they are not major ones, so who knows.
No matter where the problem lies, it's a huge setback for a product that was meant to be a major player at the top of every gift list. I guess you'll now have to choose between one of the Echos and Google Home.
Apple did, however, promise that HomePod will be released in early 2018 in the U.S., UK and Australia.