Picture: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
The HomePod mini performed a key function in serving to Apple make inroads within the good speaker market. Regardless of its success, the corporate is reportedly not engaged on a HomePod mini 2.
Apple launched the HomePod mini in October 2020 alongside the iPhone 12 collection. In contrast to the full-size $299 HomePod, the mini is obtainable for a extra cheap $99.
No HomePod mini 2 in improvement
Apple shocked everybody by asserting the HomePod 2 in mid-January 2023. The brand new good speaker largely retains the identical design as its predecessor, with minor enhancements. Extra importantly, it carries the identical $299 price ticket as the unique mannequin.
The HomePod mini can also be over two years outdated and comparatively profitable, so many count on Apple to debut a more recent mannequin later this yr or early 2024. Reportedly although, that’s not the case.
In his newest Energy On e-newsletter, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman claims Apple just isn’t “actively working” on a HomePod mini refresh. He says the HomePod mini already packs all of the options discovered within the new HomePod, together with the temperature and humidity sensor. So, there’s no urgent want for Apple to work on a more recent mannequin. As a substitute, the corporate ought to give attention to bettering Siri and third-party app assist for its good speaker lineup.
Within the Cult of Mac‘s HomePod mini overview, we discovered the sound high quality of Apple’s small speaker spectacular. Plus, you may pair two audio system in a stereo setup to fill a whole room with sound.
HomePod wants Siri to step up
Each of Apple’s good audio system ship on the sound high quality entrance. They lag behind their rivals in smartness, with Google Assistant and Alexa supporting many extra third-party apps. Apple must work on making Siri smarter for the HomePod to make inroads into the good house market. The corporate’s voice assistant has seen little enhancements on its good audio system in the previous few years and delivers the identical expertise as earlier than.
