Apple is way behind Amazon in the smart speaker contest, as the HomePod's release date has been delayed and rescheduled once again after years in development.
Based on a report from CNBC, Apple's upcoming HomePod speaker will not be available until next year. This is quite far from the original intended release of December, which was announced back in June. Apparently, the tech giant needs more time to make sure that its device is competent and ready.
"We can't wait for people to experience HomePod, Apple's breakthrough wireless speaker for the home, but we need a little more time before it's ready for our customers. We'll start shipping in the US, UK and Australia in early 2018," Apple said in a statement. Customers who want an actual reason for the delay would be disappointed as Apple has not specified what the problem is.
Regardless, the HomePod is still set to be a direct competition to Amazon's Echo speaker and Google's Home speaker. As such, it will also be priced competitively at $349, though at the current Black Friday price of the Echo, customers might favor it more so than the more expensive Apple counterpart even if it were to be released.
A financial analyst named Brian White from Drexel Hamilton has stated that despite this delay, the finances of Apple will likely be unaffected since there are only one million expected units of the HomePod to be sold for December. He also stated that Apple's HomePod essentially went from being a Christmas gift to an Easter surprise, meaning the HomePod may get released on or before April 2018.
Still, Business Insider has claimed that Apple delaying the release of its competition against the Amazon Echo could give the latter an advantage in the smart speaker market since the Holiday season is a perfect opportunity to widen the gap. As of now, 15 million Echo smart speakers have been bought even before the Holiday season began. With the start of Black Friday and Thanksgiving, the Echo might see more sales.
The Apple HomePod has no exact release date yet but is expected to arrive early in 2018.
