Tim Cook talked up the audio quality of Apple’s HomePod smart speaker during a recent interview, while taking a shot at the competition.
“We think one thing that was missing from this market was a quality audio experience, a very immersive audio experience,” Cook said. “Music deserves that kind of quality as opposed to some kind of squeaky sound.”
Cook’s interview was given as part of his recent visit to Canada, his first during his tenure as Apple CEO. The talk about HomePod, which Apple has largely avoided discussing since its announcement at the Worldwide Developers Conference last year, comes hot on the heels of news that Apple’s $349 Siri speaker will finally ship in early February. Preorders open this Friday.
Apple’s smart speaker is quite late to the game and priced much higher than most similar products. Apple claims the HomePod will sound far better than the competition, but that might not be enough to convince consumers, millions of whom already own Amazon Echo or Google Home smart speakers.
HomePod audio quality is the main thing (other than price) that Apple says will set its Siri-powered device apart from rivals. According to Apple, the smart speaker will “reinvent the way we enjoy music” thanks to its seven-tweeter array, 4-inch woofer, and smart “spatial awareness” technology that lets it “read” its environment.
Cook is still a big believer in augmented reality
During Cook’s interview with the Financial Post, he also talked about augmented reality, which Apple introduced into its products with ARKit.
“I see AR taking off very quickly,” Cook said. “I see developers across Canada adopting at a very fast rate, bringing their craft to market and I couldn’t be happier with it.”
Are you as excited as Cook about the possibilities offered by Apple’s push into augmented reality and smart speakers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
5 responses to “Tim Cook: Music ‘deserves’ the audio quality HomePod offers”
Which comes first, The cart or the horse? Apple now has a great cart but it still needs some horses to win the race!!
Having a great set of speakers will offer the fidelity (at least two – which you can’t do yet! Piss poor Apple).
If you don’t have the content what do you get? This is the same issue we had when DVD’s where re-spun into BluRay disks the content fidelity was what it was shot in and you couldn’t improve it to take advantage on what BluRay could offer, Unless Apple can gain access to the original master tapes to get the most out of the recordings you likely won’t notice much difference directly from your stereo speakers from your iPod.
Siri control is the other area Apple has put aside. I hope this changes real quickly.
If Apple charges more than 150 bucks for this thing. They are insane. No one has the ears that people used to have, so fidelity doesn’t mean much to my daughter. She wants to hear the song, and doesn’t care how it sounds.
Take your daughter to a concert and give her a taste of class. It’s your fault for not raising her to have respect for quality.
One tiny speaker case, with very little separation for stereo. This is what music “deserves”? Goodness… i’m not an audiophile and i find this grotesque because i like music more than background noise.
Did Apple create high quality audio now?
Hilarious.
Just like the terms “audiophile”, It’s always used to sell products to people who are NOT audiophiles.