Apple shipped 600 thousand HomePod in just two months, showing the presence in the smart speaker market as well

Market research company Strategy Analytics issuedLatest surveyAccording to Apple, it is estimated that in the first quarter of 2018, 600 thousand HomePods were shipped. With this,Amazon EchoYaGoogle HomeWill account for about 6% of the market in the smart speaker market that is sweeping.

Apple shipped an estimated 600,000 HomePods in the first quarter of the year - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/17/17366778/apple-homepod-sales-estimate-600-thousand-units-smart-speaker

Strategy Analytics announces sales forecast data for the smart speaker market in the first quarter of 2018 (January 1 - March 31), during which Apple's smart speaker "HomePod" shipped 600 thousand units It is said that it was. It should be noted that HomePod was released on February 9, 2018, which means that it shipped 600,000 units in just two months. According to the same survey, the worldwide smart speaker shipments in the same period are 9.2 million. Competitors' smart speaker shipments are that Amazon is 4 million units and Google is 2.4 million units. Apple's shipments of 600 thousand means that we have gained about 6% share in the smart speaker market, and Apple has won a fourth share after Amazon, Google and Alibaba It will appear to be.

However, this is only a forecast of sales, it is unknown how accurate the numbers are. Also, Strategy Analytics is the number shipped "to the last", and it is not clear whether this is "sold" or not.


Although it is a HomePod whose release has been delayed compared to competing products, Bloomberg announced in March 2018 that "Apple ordered orders to lower the forecast of HomePod's sales forecast and reduce production volume to supplier Inventec"Reportis. Originally, Apple seems to have aimed at 10% market share for Amazon, which has acquired a share of 73% in the smart speaker market from the number of reservations accepted by HomePod. However, after users who reserved HomePod got the product, sales were sluggish, eventually being told that the market share of the smart speaker market was only 4%.

The reason why the sales of HomePod is sluggish is that there are several clauses that seem to be overwhelming, The Verge of foreign media wrote, the first one like HomePod AirPods "It is treated as an accessory of the ecosystem called iOS to the end" It is a point. For example, HomePod and installed voice recognition assistant Siri only work on Apple Music, other music streaming services need to stream to HomePod via AirPlay via iOS device, in this case Siri voice It is pointed out that control becomes impossible.

The second problem is that "you need at least one iOS or macOS device to use HomePod". In other words, HomePod is not assuming any users who do not own Apple products at all. The third problem is "price", whereas HomePod's selling price is $ 349 (about 39,000 yen), whereas competitors' products like Amazon and Google can be purchased at much lower prices .

Introducing HomePod - Apple - YouTube


There are also rumors that Apple will develop cheaper and smaller HomePods to compete with competing products such as Amazon Echo and Google Home at prices, but there are rumors that are familiar with Apple-related leaksMinchi QuoHe expects such inexpensive HomePod to be released soon. In addition, Mr. Quo predicts "Apple will sell 200 to 2.5 million HomePods in 2018", and if this is realized Apple's HomePod will be about 1 billion dollars (about 110 billion yen) It will grow into business.