Let go of the obsession with sound quality, Apple HomePod mini reshuffles the global smart speaker industry with its cost-effectiveness

As expected, on October 14, Apple launched its 2020 flagship iPhone 12 series as scheduled. But surprisingly, at the opening of the press conference, Apple took the lead in introducing the HomePod mini smart speaker belonging to the "marginal product line".

Considering that Apple's smart speaker product line has been around for more than three years, HomePod has not made much splash in the market. The release of HomePod mini in the spotlight of iPhone 12 seems to indicate Apple's determination to dominate the smart speaker market.

In fact, considering the hot smart speaker market today, the HomePod mini, which costs only 1/4 of the HomePod, does have enough confidence to reshuffle the entire industry.

Smart speakers don’t need high sound quality

Although HomePod also focuses on "smart" functions such as connection with Apple devices and Siri wake-up, Apple's continued musical thinking and its inherent understanding of speaker products determine that all functions of HomePod revolve around "sound quality."

As Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of global marketing, said: "HomePod hopes to create a new music experience that makes consumers sound incredible." It is precisely because Apple dares to pile up materials on sound quality that the price of HomePod can reach $349 regardless of the overall industry trend.

It is precisely because of this ultimate music concept that Apple has created many acclaimed products such as iPod and AirPods Pro. However, the particularity of speaker products and the smart speaker industry determines that piling up materials will not necessarily lead to broad consumer recognition.

According to Apple's vision, while allowing HomePod to bring ultimate sound quality, it further enhances the connectivity of HomePod within the Apple ecosystem. Naturally, it will gain many loyal fans like AirPods Pro.

However, industry data clearly tells us that most consumers may not pay too much for the ultimate sound quality.

According to data released by Canalys, Amazon shipped 15.8 million smart speakers in the fourth quarter of 2019, accounting for 28.3% of the market, while Baidu, Alibaba and Xiaomi accounted for 10.8%, 9.8% and 8.4% of the market share respectively. In comparison, Apple HomePod shipped only 2.6 million units, accounting for less than 5% of the market share.

Interestingly, the products of the leading smart speaker players are also very similar in product orientation - all focus on low prices, voice interaction and home control. Therefore, we can also say that this is the product requirement of consumers for smart speakers in a macro sense.

At this point, if we look back at Apple's HomePod, we will find that although it has indeed maximized the functions of the speaker, the problem is that the current development focus of smart speakers should be on "intelligence". HomePod focuses too much on sound quality, which not only makes consumers ignore its intelligence, but the additional high cost also makes most consumers stay away. This is the primary reason why HomePod is becoming increasingly lifeless against the backdrop of the increasingly popular smart speaker industry.

Apple will also cater to users with cost-effectiveness

Perhaps because of the loss of stimulation from HomePod, or perhaps because of the development experience of the smart speaker industry, Apple’s HomePod mini finally stopped focusing on promoting sound quality.

Judging from the official website, HomePod mini's product focus is on four aspects, namely "sound quality", "smart assistant", "home butler" and "privacy bodyguard". Coupled with the "cost-effective" price of HomePod mini at only US$99, it can be said that HomePod mini has indeed "catered to the market".

Unfortunately, Apple's brand tone determines that it cannot launch entry-level products priced at only around RMB 100 like Amazon, Google, Xiaomi and other manufacturers. This will actually become the biggest obstacle for HomePod mini to quickly capture the market.

Therefore, Apple's HomePod mini is actually facing a big contradiction: it cannot lower the price too much, but it also wants to occupy the market. On the basis of the increasing importance of the home entrance, with the lessons of HomePod, Apple will obviously not let this contradiction have a fatal impact on HomePod mini.

From a macro-strategic perspective, Apple is currently mainly using HomeKit and mobile terminals as entry points to alleviate the above-mentioned contradictions from an ecological perspective.

First of all, HomePod mini is connected with Apple's own smart home app, and consumers can directly control all HomeKit applications in the Apple ecosystem through HomePod mini voice. Since smart speaker voice interaction is highly compatible with IoT devices, Apple's "Home" ecosystem will in turn stimulate the decentralization of HomePod mini.

For example, the Intercom function demonstrated by Apple at the HomePod mini launch conference is the best proof of Apple's closed-loop ecosystem to encourage consumers to buy more HomePod minis.

Secondly, similar to the service industry, Apple also hopes to create a differentiated experience through the clever connection between its business base iPhone and HomePod mini, allowing consumers to experience functions that traditional smart speakers do not have.

For example, the four iPhones released on October 14 all support UWB technology. In addition, the HomePod mini is equipped with a U1 chip. The new iPhone only needs to approach the HomePod mini to complete the exchange of information. Compared with traditional smart speakers, the efficiency is greatly improved.

In addition, Apple also stated at the press conference that HomePod mini and iPhone have deep data integration. Through Siri, consumers can directly use HomePod mini as a carrier to access text messages, calls, music and other apps on iPhone. These functions are difficult for traditional smart speakers to achieve.

In addition, one of the major features of the 2020 iPhone is that the price is lower and the product line is wider. Therefore, based on this differentiation, HomePod mini is likely to be similar to Apple's service industry, riding on the momentum of the iPhone to seize potential markets.

On the whole, although Apple lost the first wave of dividends in the smart speaker industry, it has obviously been observing the trends in the smart speaker industry in the past three years. Therefore, it was able to launch a smart speaker product like HomePod mini, which has extremely balanced performance in all aspects and caters to consumer needs.

Although the price of HomePod mini is still relatively high compared to entry-level smart speaker products on the market, the reason why Apple is Apple is that it can give its products high-dimensional core competitiveness through the stacking of ecology and hardware, and create products that "others don't have, but I have, and I have better than others."

In a nutshell, when the price of Apple smart speakers drops below 1,000 yuan, many domestic smart speakers will have to start to be careful, and a major reshuffle in the industry seems inevitable.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.