AirPods Are A Totally Different Ballgame

Audience S-Curve, S-Curve Audience





Any new product be it whatever the iPhone or the HomePod all follow the S Curve. The initial part of the curve represents the early adopters, People who are willing to take a chance on a product. Now the HomePod being the Product it is , can't be advertised in the usual sense. You have a brand new iPhone put up a few photos it takes or put up an ad that shows what the new iPhone can do and people will buy it. The HomePod on the other hand can't be advertised in the same way you can't convey the HomePod's amazing sound through an ad. They have to experience it for themselves. A prospective buyer might experience the HomePod at a friends house( From the initial reactions I've seen on Twitter people are loving their HomePods) and after seeing what the HomePod can do, more and more people will start buying the HomePod. Which takes us to the second part of our graph, Exponential growth. Eventually this growth will plateau as everyone who wants a HomePod will have one. By this time the HomePod will be one of the most sought after smart speakers on the market.



So those are my thoughts do you think I'm right or did you stop reading half-way through?

The HomePod is finally here, and the reviews are in. I'm sure you've watched umpteen reviews and you all know the basics, It sounds amazing , Siri is dumb (Which is don't think is the case ) and that it lacks Spotify and Android integration (You can read why I think thats not going to happen here ).But what stood out to me was the lack of "consumer interest " in the product. The preorders went live and much un-like the iPhone or the AirdPods, the HomePod was available for quite a long time, only selling out on the day before the launch day. For Apple this is really weird, a company that sells out of everything they release instantly.This made me doubt the demand for the HomePod and I wondered if the critics were right , That maybe people aren't really interested in a $350 smart speaker. But thats not really the case.Now you might remember back in 2016, when the iPhone 7 came out Apple came out with AirPods and much like the HomePod they were quite delayed. As soon as the preorders went live they were sold out everywhere and wait times were in the 5-6 weeks range. Many People were expecting a demand of this proportions and as soon as the HomePod didn't reach wait times in the 5-6 week range critics were already doubting the HomePod(Yours truly included).But there's a difference between the AirPods and the HomePod, The AirPods were much cheaper at a $159. Moreover the customers were already willing to buy the AirPods as they felt a need for it (Due to the death of the headphone jack ). The HomePod you see had none of these factors. It costs an exorbitant amount of money and it doesn't really need to be in your home. So that explains the initial lukewarm response. Which brings me to my next point.