Apple's late to the game with a smart speaker, but the company is hoping that the quality of the HomePod will help it catch up to its rivals. It's not a great sign, though, that the speaker will ship without basic features: It won't have multi-room audio, or even stereo pairing, at launch. While it's priced higher than its rivals (Sonos is currently offering two Sonos One speakers for the same price), Apple's focus on privacy will certainly be attractive to some buyers.