Apple is promoting it all wrong. Imagine a picture of a dorm room in the 70s with a big wooden stereo amp, big wooden speakers and cable, a record player, and a stash of vinyl not in their apple crates but strewn around the room haphazardly so they're not in the best shape. (This doesn't apply to us, but is sadly true of the majority of folks who don't care that much about their music.)

Then, for a single cost of $349 and a monthly $9.99 iTunes subscription, the contemporary dorm room with no amplifier, no big wooden speakers, no pile of vinyl - just the HomePod and great sound with access to a giant library. It's a much more efficient and cost effective choice.

So they need to stop pushing it as a speaker. It's the replacement for the entire stereo system a lot of us used to have to lug around.

The full page ad has "Your dad's music" on top, and "Your music" on the bottom. That would get folks to buy it. $349 is a LOT, but not if you think of it as replacing the whole shebang with some really good sound.

Grabbed one yesterday, and it was incredibly simple to set up.
Plugged it in, my iPhone suddenly told me it was there and asked me what room it was in, if it could use the wifi, and if I wanted it to have access to my personal stuff.

That last one is important: it doesn't recognize different voices yet, so anyone could say "read my texts" and Siri would. I left that turned off.

But, in a very quiet voice, I could say "Siri, play Lyle Mays 'Feet First'" and this really great sound came out.

So, thumbs up!

i've heard a few knocks (apple is too far behind google and amazon, etc.)

however i'm sure it's very good stuff

and with their app ecosystem well established, i expect them to catch up rather quickly

a fanboi speaks