In a statement to CNBC this morning, Apple said its HomePod smart speaker will be released in 2018, not by the end of this year as originally announced.

Here is the company's statement:

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.

The 7''-tall HomePod was expected to launch in December. It will cost $349 and bring Siri into any room in your house that it wasn't already present, allowing for voice features like answering questions and managing your smart home. That said, Apple said the main focus of the HomePod is music. The device will feature an A8 processor—the same found in the iPhone 6—and will sense the layout of the room and adjust its audio output for optimal acoustics. It will also work in tandem with other HomePods wirelessly to provide home-wide coverage or deliver stereo sound.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said when announcing the HomePod that "we want to reinvent home music." But Amazon and other companies that have entered this space have already done a lot of the work on that front. The Amazon Echo and the Google Home devices have brought robust voice control and smart home functionality, though neither has been praised for audiophile-worthy sound quality.

For that, you have the Sonos One, which we liked quite a lot for its application of new smart speaker features without compromising much on sound quality. Apple's HomePod makes a similar promise, which is likely one of the reasons its price is so much higher than that of the Amazon Echo.