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Comment by turtlebits | Hacker News Reader

I don’t get it. Siri is the absolute worst compared to Google assistant, the only compelling reason to buy the HomePod is for sound quality.

So unless this has some other redeeming quality over “Siri in your living room”, I don’t think it will sell well. The original HomePod regularly went on sale for 33% off already.

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That was my exact thought too. I'm an owner of both an Echo, and a few Echo Dots. The Dots aren't great for music, but the Echo is actually really decent.

The name is a big mistake (they should call it just "HomePod", and the larger one "HomePod Max / Studio". Right now they are forcing people to compare it to the $30 smart assistants by the other two. It's not evident from the name that the HomePod "Mini" isn't competing with the Google Home Mini or Amazon Echo Dot.

Google / Amazon / Apple

Low end: Home Mini / Echo Dot / None, but people will think HomePod Mini sits here

Mid: Home / Echo / HomePod Mini

High: Home Max / Echo Studio / HomePod

I'm curious to know what 90% of people do with their home assistant devices. I have a Google Home. I know it can do a huge array of things, but almost all I do with it is play music, control lights, and set timers. Siri can do all of those things.

For me it's that plus voice-controlled NPR or audiobooks while doing other things (often cooking) and weather for later in the day (while getting ready in the morning). It'd also be temperature control, but I'm stuck with a millivolt thermostat and apparently nobody's interest in selling to us gas fireplace people.

I have a couple of Echo devices, predominantly I use them for lighting control, alarms, timers, speakers for music and podcasts when cooking, paging out messages round the house rather than yelling down the stairs. My six year old son has picked up that he can use them to call me despite not having a phone of his own, so I also occasionally get calls when out and about asking for urgent Zelda help.

For one, I can use them as a speaker for my non-Apple devices. My household is almost entirely Apple products, but considering I have a few devices I would like to occasionally pair like a PC, it makes more sense to buy a home assistant/speak device from Google or Amazon that will work with everything I own, rather than a Homepod that will work with 90% of what I own, even if I like everything else about the Homepod more.

Nest Audio was recently released and for the same price as the Homepod Mini. Curious to see how they stack up sound quality wise.. if the Nest holds it's own like I think it will I really see _no_ compelling reason for the Homepod.

Siri is slowly catching up and my bet it will become really good soon. If you want to get this, get it for privacy and better sound quality.

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