Image makers: Tracy Ma
Lei Feng network news, according to
Bloomberg reports
, Sources from the insiders revealed that Apple has always been considered smart speaker war behind others, the original has long been related to research and development projects, but after repeated cancellations, delays and recovery, the final product HomePod was towed until next year to market .
Sources said as early as 2014, Apple's smart speaker project has been carried out for about two years, the result was Amazon's smart speaker Echo upset.
At that time, Apple engineers also jokingly accused each other of the project secret leaked to the Amazon, and then bought back and demolished the study, and soon found Echo's sound quality is not good, so go back and continue to study better speakers.
They said the product has undergone several adjustments (once as high as 1 meter) because Apple executives find it hard to find a niche for the device in the user's home and Apple's ecosystem of product services.
Finally, Apple finally decided to make this product, they think the speaker can make consumers have another one to remain loyal reasons.But because of this delay, although compared to Amazon Apple has Siri and AppStore such a huge early advantage , They still only HomePod positioning as AirPods the same accessories products.
HomePod Source: Apple's official website
Finally came, may have lagged behind for three years
Apple's hesitation in the speaker, the direct result is that Amazon accounted for the first chance. When Apple officially announced HomePod products in June of this year, the Amazon Echo series has been launched for nearly three years, and, originally scheduled to be 12 this year HomePod also listed on the bounce to early next year.
At present, Echo series of products has reached tens of millions of sales, responsive Google has become the second place.Echo has tens of thousands of skills, has formed a small ecology, and Apple's HomePod's main function is from Apple Music Play music, access to Apple's HomeKit products, and send messages through the iPhone, etc., far less than Echo.
'This really missed a great opportunity,' said an anonymous broke the news, Apple officials declined to respond to this.
Origin of Apple Smart Speakers: Amateur projects by a group of Mac engineers
HomePod originated from a group of Mac audio engineers engaged in an amateur project about 5 years ago, they want to develop a sound box better than the Bose, JBL, Harman these brands sound. Small projects are commonplace within Apple and are encouraged as long as their daily work is not affected.
The group of engineers wanted to develop a product that would put enthusiasts in the enclosure, who brought in a few people from several major speaker companies and dreamed of refining one of the most anticipated technologies.
Here's a technique called 'beam forming', which takes the sound to a specific location in the room to create an immersive 3D audio experience. (Other vendors are also pushing the technology, Sonos released in October The microphone is the use of this technology allows users to anywhere in the room on the speaker orders.
Apple decided to use beamforming technology, the designer tried a variety of different product forms, including a prototype that looks like a flat screen with a mesh screen in front of the other one is the height of the now released 7-inch HomePod 5 times, which put dozens of speakers.
There's also a discussion about the idea of adding a second woofer and several midrange speakers to the product to further enhance its sound quality, but designers have also come up with a variety of colors but ultimately only black and white. Years of experimentation has taken place Many prototypes, piled in a cupboard, like a mini-museum dedicated to HomePod.
After two years of development, the engineer's own amateur project was finally officially branded as 'B238' under Apple's Accessories department, which is where AirPods was born and led by Gary Geaves , Previously head of research at Bowers & Wilkins, an audio company, and with his team on HomePod, engineers were moved to Valley Green 1, an office near Apple's early headquarters in Cupertino.
Apple tested different product prototypes in a specially designed audio storehouse, and built a variety of scenes that mimic real life, such as college dorm rooms, living rooms, and open studio apartments.
By 2016, Apple had started testing the product outside its own team in order to get more neutral feedback, and Apple later tested its HomePod with some Apple employees from around the world.
Amazon new Echo picture comes from
Amazon official website
Siri ready-made has not been fully utilized
Echo is the core of Alexa, and Amazon focus on the development of speaker intelligence is different from Apple HomePod is the main feature of the music.Although Apple has launched a multi-year voice assistant Siri, but informed sources, because they give HomePod positioning music and The sound quality, Siri team did not fully participate in the project, although HomePod still joined the wake-up function, but as a personal assistant's features are not prominent.
This year, HomePod is still only one of 4-5 areas of work for the Siri team.
Amazon's Echo independent of an ecosystem based on the cloud-based operating system allows developers to develop a wide range of skills and voice wake-up applications.Comparatively, HomePod basically is the section iPhone accessories.When the user lets HomePod open a Instead of writing the request directly to the HomePod, instead of modifying the existing iPhone application to provide support, the request is not delivered to the cloud, but rather to the iPhone, Limit to the message, reminder list and notes three.
If Alexa is the heart of Echo, then Siri is just a HomePod feature only in the official introduction page, Apple's main emphasis is the HomePod sound quality, rather than Siri.
According to sources familiar with the news from Bloomberg, Apple told suppliers it plans to ship 4 million HomePods by 2018. By comparison, according to analysts at CIRP LLC, Amazon Echo shipped 15 million units since its sale.
Summary: Chaser apple
This is actually not the first time Apple made the speaker, as early as in 2006, the company introduced a $ 349 product iPod Hi-Fi, the results flutter in the street, so give up after a year and a half later this time, Apple is still The odds to pay attention to the sound quality.But rivals are not to be outdone, Google has $ 400 Home Max; Amazon launched a high-end version of Echo Plus; wireless speaker Sonos, the traditional speaker giant Sony, have introduced the corresponding products.
Perhaps Apple will add more features to the HomePod in the future, but Lei Feng Network believes that for now, the leading Apple, in the field of smart speakers is a chaser role.
Source: Bloomberg, Lei Feng network compilation