Apple is famously good at making customers excited about its new releases, but that doesn’t mean the company applies its powers of persuasion to all products equally. As I plan to discuss further in this column next week, excellent-value offerings like the 4th-gen AirPods and the new Mac mini sometimes slip by almost unnoticed while the marketing machine shines its spotlight on costlier alternatives. Occasionally you get hints of favoritism.
One product that no longer appears to have Apple’s full and enthusiastic support is the HomePod. Everything seemed so promising at the start: a cool new product for an exciting new market, a great design and superb sound quality, and all of it accessible from anywhere in the home thanks to the reliable and intuitive assistance of… Siri. Oh dear. Whether because of Siri’s failings or not, things went wrong. Sales evidently weren’t good enough, and after launching a cheaper (and also very nice) mini model, Apple made the hard decision and killed off the full-sized HomePod. That, we assumed, was that. Until it wasn’t.
Read more at Macworld.com